Ringworm : " Snake Church"

It opens with a creepy sample that sounds like something from a Rob Zombie movie. The band find themselves once again torn between their hard core roots and metal leanings. The title track is driven by the relentless momentum of punk. Sure some guitar solos slip out between the cracks along the way. The energy is maintained as they race into the second, but by the time we get to "Fear the Silence" despite the more metal drumming their is not much else to really set these songs apart from one another. Half way into "Fear the Silence" there is some groove developed and some what of a break down  towards the end. I guess the sticking point that the roars of vocalist HF aka the Human Furnace, begins to turn him into a one trick pony. There are some nuanced punches on "the Black light of a living Ghost" but nothing else really changes, until the bass jumps out to the front of the mix. In the final moments of this song there is no denying it is heavy as fuck, but what about songs?

The bass drives the lead in to "Destroy or Create".  There are smatterings of gang vocals, but nothing else really distinguishing the song."Shades of Blue" When they slow down to get creepier on "Shades of Blue" it's more effective than just racing the songs by for the sake of being fast since hardcore bands should be fast. They start off a little more metal with  "Innocent Blood" but the vocals drag them back into a rougher street smart hard core holler. "the Apparition" is more thrashing. The drummer is a serious monster on this album and from a production stand point the guitars a re pretty massive as well. The songs are short and to the point, which is one thing the more hardcore attitude is bringing to metal that is much needed. There Slayer influence is pretty evident on "Believer" though it sounds like "God Hates Us All" is their favorite Slayer album.

There is a more melodic section in "the Razor and the Knife" that helps to vary the pounding they come at you with , this is important or this album would just give you a pounding headache.The attack to "Angel of War" is similar to that of the rest of the album. Very direct and in your face. This also gets filed into the more monochrome songs. They Slayer like onslaught continues until they close out the album. The same rules apply to Slayer as well, who has been off their peak with everything that has followed "Divine Intervention". Both band's could learn a little hook and groove goes along way to making their songs more memorable as they both have hit the mark with it in the past. This leaves Ringworm to still chase the spark they had on "Scars" which remains their best album to date. I'll give this one a 6.5, if you jsut want confrontational hardcore metal then this is the album for you.





7.6