RINGWORM
Death Becomes My Voice
RELAPSE
8/10
NO-HOLDS-BARRED HARDCORE: As should be expected after three decades plus into Ringworm’s tenured career, the band’s eighth studio album, Death Becomes My Voice, is a no-frills freight train careening off the tracks (in a good way). You’ll find no gimmicks of any kind here—this is all killer and no filler. “Carnivores” is stripped-down metallic hardcore in its finest, most unpredictable form. Frontman Human Furnace breathes fire amidst a sea of blazing riffs on “Dead to Me,” “The God of New Flesh,” and “I Want to Tear the World Apart,” somehow managing to kick things up a notch and take Death Becomes My Voice to the next level via a smattering of blistering leads and breakneck paces. “Let It Burn” is a literal behemoth—“We will never be the same, you will know us by our name, we are the void, we are the stranger, we are the death, a freak of nature, a light you’ll never understand, we are light, we are infection, we crucify…don’t pray for us,” Human Furnace defiantly proclaims. Some words of advice regarding Death Becomes My Voice—make sure you manage to take a deep breath between each track, because Ringworm doesn’t allot much time to do so, as the band gives, and takes, no quarter over the course of the album’s 36 minutes. If nothing else, Death Becomes My Voice is further proof that Ringworm are true masters of their craft. ~ Brian Campbell
