Review Summary: TRUST NO ONE. FUCK SCENES, FUCK LEECHES. FUCK BACKSTABBERS. FUCK YOU.
Insect Warfare don’t do trendy. In a time when grind is being riddled with jazzy breakdowns, clean interludes, 80’s video game samples and pop culture references, these Texans rely solely on straightforward, balls out, uncompromising grind. And they do it well.
World Extermination is the band’s second album and was released in 2007. It is comprised of twenty pissed off songs, the longest of which is 1 minute and 36 seconds. The songs offer no catchy hooks, gimmicks or keyboard effects to pull listeners in, there is nothing here for fans of IWABO et al. With song titles such as “Enslaved By Machinery”, “Mass Communication Mindf
uck" and “Internet Era Alienation” it’s clear that these guys are not the happiest of souls. This is in fact completely summarised by the ‘bio’ on the band’s myspace page:
TRUST NO ONE. F
UCK SCENES. F
UCK LEECHES. F
UCK BACKSTABBERS. F
UCK YOU.
This unbrindled anger and contempt that the band holds towards the world lends itself perfectly to IW’s music, influencing the intense vocal performance and rapid fire riffs and suffocating blast beat sections. There are, however, some tracks which slow down to a half tempo and get into a groove and works really well, helping to give the songs some variation and the listener the occasional breathing period.
Lyrically, the band is as bleak as the song titles suggest, covering subjects such as mass infection, the massive growth of machine reliance, paranoia, nuclear war, brainwashing plus many other of the greater aspects of humanity. Throughout the tracks the lyrics are both barked and growled unrelentingly at the listener; very rarely letting up until the song finishes, and then starts all over again. A great example of the band’s anger and how it influences their music is the track “Internet Era Alienation”, which addresses the current growth and doomination of the internet community:
“Life isn’t a message board, why don’t you go outside, you are not shit without an avatar to hide behind. Always quick to speak your mind but you got no one to talk to except your dumb fu online friends who’ve never even met you. Sit behind computer screen; on the internet you own the scene.”
But with an album whose title is
World Extermination, what else is there to expect?
The cons of the album are the song lengths and the mainly un-intelligible vocals and slight lack of variation in the guitars and drumming. However if you enjoy this form of grind, you come to expect these aspects and grow to enjoy them.
Overall
World Extermination is an angry album by an angry band, and wouldn’t be as good as it is without that mood to feed off. The band makes it clear that there are a lot of things that they hate about modern life and it's clear that they aren't afraid to speak their mind about them. It's unfortunate that the band has now called it quits and broken up, more than likely to be replaced by the very things that they were railing against. I would recommend
World Extermination to any fans of grind and as required listening for those who thinks they know what grind is.
