Terrorizer
World Downfall

THE REVIEW

Oscar Garcia, Jesse Pintado (R.I.P.), David Vincent, and Pete Sandoval are Terrorizer, a legendary band, if there ever was one in the Grindcore saga, the masters of the D.O.C Death Metal factory; not the inventors of the all-grinding genre, an honor said to belong to Napalm Death, not the longest-lasting, nor the shrewdest, but undoubtedly the most heroic.

"World Downfall" was released in 1989 when the band no longer existed: Pintado joined Napalm Death and Pete Sandoval went on to Morbid Angel together with David Vincent. Over the years, this has been the group's only full-length album, until recently when they released, a good seventeen years later, the follow-up "Darker Days Ahead" (without Garcia and Vincent), which was overshadowed by the passing of guitarist Jesse Pintado, following issues with alcoholism. In "World Downfall" we find sixteen tracks of overwhelming Grindcore and Death Metal, sometimes disjointed, sometimes diluted, in thirty-six minutes of massacre devoid of guitar solos, with various fascinating solutions; it spans from ultra-fast drums to steel-string bass, from a guitar noisy like a boiler to Oscar Garcia's wrathful, pained, inquisitive voice declaiming texts infused with alienation, the end of the world, greedy multinationals, atomic wars, cruelty mixed in the petroleum green cover that cloaks the collage of Islamic guerrillas, nuclear power plants, and buried children: a bitter flavor similar to the covers of "Scum" and "From Enslavement To Obliteration" by Morte Al Napalm.

Grindcore is the sonic stampede, a base of tension and release between Thrash rhythms and blast beat drumming spiced by the adamantine yet raw Death Metal production of Scott Burns and David Vincent. Everything seems perfect from the opener "After World Obliteration", the harbor where it departs, growing from the twilight zone, reminiscent of dylandog, the Death Metal wall played with vigor by Pintado, hounded by Sandoval dispensing slayerian speed mixed with hardcore grind-all discussions and stellar double bass; the bass tsunami of Vincent cements it all while Pintado's whirlwind roars, with the faint meow of the six-string amidst the storm, before diving into the feral, surgical blast magma, celebrated by cymbals sounding like a violent bowling pin strike. Immense Garcia with his powerful, guttural, beastly growl, like an enraged puma against honest society, against the profit of multinationals ("Multinational Corporations, genocide of the starving nations" Napalm Death also sang). Restart with "Storm Of Stress" opened by the thundering and satanic bass projecting us onto nerve-wracking streets, or into witches' Sabbath or a pitch-black voodoo ritual cave, all sublimated by a whirring sewing-machine-like drum.

"Fear Of Napalm" starts peacefully but then takes off like a jet, intoxicating with enthralling time changes up to the brink of "Human Prey", with the album's fiercest and longest "barrage beat", seamlessly merging into the shout of "Diee, diee, diee" in "Corporation Pull-In" where "The rich get rich the poor stay poor and discomfort tears through flesh. "Strategic Warheads" shakes us with a text of pained lips, with seemingly endless, unbelievably creative rolls, increasingly repeated on "Condemned System" enhanced by Oscar bursting out an easy but striking refrain, whereas "Resurrection" is orthodox, coarse-grained Death Metal: a slight songwriting drop. "Enslaved by Propaganda" is excellently sung, with roars rising and falling, highlighting expressed concepts, while the drum kit appears to incessantly explode, varying the beat and offbeat frequently; there’s no breathing time as "Need To Live" arrives, marked by Oscar's good intro, his voice more muffled than usual; not so with "Ripped To Shreds": a shabby shower of speed, with other mini guitar howls closing as they seep through the metallic wall to sob.

"Injustice" opens with an unusual swirling riff, with following blast beats, tempo changes, and reunion with the initial theme: a delight; there are also two lackluster tracks "Whirlwind Struggle" with dense double bass underpinning, and "Infestation", definitely a filler. Behold the album’s anthem song, included in the "Grindcrushers" compilation, the anthemic and aggressive "Dead Shall Rise" which perfectly synthesizes Grindcore's power and Death Metal's sound: furious drumming and epic, tight guitar sound, undoubtedly a soul mate of "Reek Of Putrefaction" by Carcass. The title track looms at the end, more composed and versatile in rhythm, askew in unfolding, fading slowly with Oscar lowering his voice singing and speaking, with the aftertaste of "World Downfall".

An evergreen album, a source of inspiration for '90s Grind/Death bands, played by musicians who were exploring near-virgin metal territories: "World Downfall"'s legacy resounds in "Altar Of Madness" by Morbid Angel and more sedately in "Harmony Corruption" by Napalm Death.

Legendary, unique, immeasurable Terrorizer, one of the bands I have loved immensely (and still adore) and that have been close to my heart with their music.