Wormrot: Journeying Beyond Grind

Singapore grindcore maniacs WORMROT are about to drop their long awaited new album Hiss, their first in six years, and as well as having exactly what would want from a WORMROT album in terms of grinding heaviness, it is the most diverse musical offering that they have brought out to date. We caught up with drummer Vijesh Ghariwala ahead of the album’s release and he gave us the lowdown on Hiss and his time with with the band.

As recent events within the band have attested to, this marks the end of an era for WORMROT but one on which they will go out on a high as one listen to Hiss will prove, and there are no doubts that the band will forge a bright new future with whatever comes next for the band.

With Hiss being the first album that they have brought out in a number of years, the anticipation from the band to bring out the album is intense as Vijesh tell us. “We’re definitely excited, it’s been six years since the last release we put out and we are more than ready to get the album out!”

The album artwork for Hiss is not the only striking artistic statement that WORMROT have made this time around as their brilliant recent music video that combines the three album tracks Grieve, Weeping Willow and Voiceless Choir into one cinematic video proves. Vijesh eagerly tells us about the video and it’s plot. “The video was inspired by a bunch of crime dramas in Singapore that were popular in the 70s and 80s. We went along a similar theme, where three of us are corrupted cops that are framing a girl and at the same time we killed her basically, and her girlfriend comes for revenge after us. That’s the storyline of it. It was pretty much written by Rasyid. We’re happy with what we were going for and that’s we wanted in the video.”

WORMROT have always been known for their straight ahead and intense grindcore audio assault and of course, Hiss is jam packed full of that but this album also sees them branching out to incorporate new influences into the mix. Resulting in their most diverse musical offering to date. “For this album, I would say we put a lot of new elements into what we usually play like electric violin and percussive elements, this album, all in all, is more experimental. The more ideas we had to throw in, the better the direction of the album would be. We just tried to get our hands on whatever sounds can enhance our music.”

When it came to the topic of the album’s creation, Vijesh tells us that it was going to be a more diverse record from the start. “Well, we start writing in the studio, and we will figure out what’s going to be the basic theme of the album. That’s what we did, and we figured out that it’s going to be an experimental album so we just decided to lean towards that and try to get it to be experimental and dark at the same time.”

Another first for the band is the inclusion of the track When Talking Fails, It’s Time For Violence, a song sung partly in Malay, something that WORMROT have wanted to do for a while and did this time around. “I believe Rasyid always wanted to write a Malay song and we got the chance to.” The reaction to Hiss has been nothing but positive, something that Vijesh is obviously happy about. “I can tell that people were reaping interesting snippets that we’ve been showing gotten to you so far. We’re glad that people liked it. But essentially we are also glad we love it. That’s the important part. The reviews have been great.”

With this new album, the band feel re-energised and can’t wait to play the songs from Hiss in a live setting. “We have played the previous songs from the previous albums at least 1000 times over so there is definitely new energy having new songs to be able to play live, now we just need to get the live shows going again.” While WORMROT can hopefully sort out long awaited live dates again, Vijesh looks back at the last time they played live. “The last time I played a live show, Wow. That’s a good question! The last time we played live was the Australia and New Zealand tour supporting OBITUARY which was February 2020 and that was pretty memorable.

As purveyors of some of the finest grindcore ever made, Vijesh also told of what the genre means to him. “Well, the definition of grindcore, it’s not the same for everyone. It’s not just one element, there’s multiple elements in the track creating diversity between the beats and whatnot but that’s not entirely how I would describe it. You could write a melodic line and still be a grindcore but to each their own, some people might say, hey, melody is not grindcore. It’s just what you’re feeling at that point of time mostly along the lines of hardcore, punk and metal”.

Finishing off, Vijesh told us about the the highlights of his time with WORMROT and the resilience it has taught him, something that sums them up and will continue to do so as they enter the next chapter of the band. “I would say the first few tours I did. Festivals are awesome but the main highlight for me, I would say, being able to learn things from these guys on the road, things that I would not have learned. It has made me a better person and that’s what essentially I’m grateful for, for me, the learning experiences and how I overcome difficulties. Every single time we overcome a difficulty or hurdle, it makes me feel as though we are stronger. That’s the kind of thing that makes me happy.”

Hiss is out now via Earache Records.

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