Bands do cover songs to learn from them, to show their ability to nail it as well as the original, and to expand upon what have become classics of the metal culture. It is one thing to play a song, and another to deconstruct it, analyze it, and reassemble it to show an understanding of it.
World Terrorizers: A Tribute to World Downfall takes us to different places than would ordinarily be expected from a compilation of covers because it focuses on one album by one band, the foundational grindcore work World Downfall which along with Horrified, Impulse to Destroy, Scum, and Reek of Putrefaction laid out the essence of the genre.
This one will get your blood pumping and was a joy to listen to because the source material was strong and these bands from all over the world took to it with a joy and élan showing how much the seminal grindcore album from Terrorizer inspired listeners across the spectrum of alienation.
1. After World Obliteration – MASS DEFECT (Philippines)
Slowed the chorus slightly, picked up the verses just a tad, and played this one like mid-1990s Napalm Death with even more burly vocals. A perfect track for your first cup of coffee.
2. Storm of Stress – CARNAL BLASPHEMY (Colombia)
We might call this blurcore because this band aims to play the song faithfully at full speed while using nearly whispered vocals to give it even more texture but let the guitars roam freely without compassion.
3. Fear of Napalm – BONES (USA)
Covering this song is fraught with risk because it is so well-known and appreciated, but this band charges ahead with what might be described as a middle-period Carcass slightly off-tempo approach that builds a formidable groove into this song that is promptly shattered by raging blasting.
4. Human Prey – BIRTH OF DEPRAVITY (Greece)
Nice messy cover with lots of energy, emphasizing the interplay between drums and bass as a backdrop for the crashing guitars under gruff apocalyptic vocal gurgles.
5. Corporation Pull-In – STHENO (Greece)
This version takes a death metal approach that brings out the punk aspects in the main riff by fitting it alongside precise and rigid playing of the chorus riff, giving this song an unruly energy.
6. Strategic Warheads – SARKAST (Germany)
Adopting a buzzsaw Swedish sound like the second Seance album, Sarkast tackle this sound as if it were a blackened death metal anthem, inserting atmosphere and chaotic thrashing violence.
7. Condemned System – ABYSSUS (Greece)
While approaching this song almost like a hardcore punk anthem, this interpretation emphasizes the surging rhythms of the main riff by charging almost seamlessly between riffs like a breathless ride through the valleys of Hell.
8. Resurrection – PSYCHOTOMY (Italy)
This cover remains faithful while injecting an almost black metal sensibility to the tremolo riffing, building to a terrific confrontation as drums and vocals get more savage.
9. Enslaved by Propaganda – FLASHOUT (Canada)
Faithfully exploring the original, this cover exchanges lead instrument between drums and guitars, making this song feel like it is coming apart as it is coming together.
10. Need to Live – SKULLSMASHER (USA)
Sliding into these riffs like camouflage, Skullsmasher take a death metal approach and let the guitars rigidly dominate where David Vincent’s bass once did, giving this song an insistent violence.
11. Ripped to Shreds – RIPPED TO SHREDS (USA)
This approach calls to mind middle period Napalm Death around Mass Appeal Madness when the band deliberately played with aggression that was not designed to sound clean, but nailed every rhythm so that radiating sustain covers the track in a fine film of delicious noise.
12. Injustice – PROGRESS OF INHUMANITY (Greece)
If you wanted to know what a contemporary grindcore band would do to this track, Progress of Inhumanity offers a strong candidate with guitars made into a voice of their own through tight integration of riff into percussion.
13. Whirlwind Struggle – SACROVORE (Greece)
This track sounds more like what would happen if Nausea covered Terrorizer, with more space given to the riffs and drums keeping a minimal but intense presence without taking over from the guitars.
14. Infestation – CURSED BLOOD (Greece)
Reflecting the hazy days when early death metal and grindcore were more similar, this cover sounds more like Sepultura in percussion but carries a Vader style forward rhythm with guitars.
15. Dead Shall Rise – GORILLA PANIK (Germany)
Bringing out the sense of grace rising from chaos, this band play furious bounding hardcore for the verses and let the tremolo carry the chorus.
16. World Downfall – SOULSKINNER (Greece)
Applying technicality while hiding it behind a reverent cover, this band evoke the contrast in Terrorizer itself between nearly dropping into a groove and then colliding with pummeling frenetic riffing.
No one should pay more than 6$ / 6€ for this release, it was made from fans for fans to salute the legacy of this legendary album. This is an unofficial and DIY release.
Obviously a labor of appreciation for this classic album, World Terrorizers: A Tribute to “World Downfall” sounds like most of these bands recorded in their practice spaces or neighborhood studios but have played these songs many times over the years as a way of honing their own skill, and the resulting powerhouse covers bring out everything that was great about this album in new voices.
With thanks to Vic of Death in Pieces Records for allowing us to present this stream!
Tags: Abyssus, birthy of depravity, bones, Carnal Blasphemy, cursed blood, flashout, gorilla panic, Grindcore, mass defect, progress of inhumanity, psychotomy, ripped to shreds, sacrovore, sarkast, skullsmasher, soulskinner, stheno, terrorizer
Nice to see track by track reviews :) World Downfall (Terrorizer) and Horrified (Repulsion) are the Messi and CR7 of grindcore. GOAT. Napalm Death, Carcass, Pig Destroyer and the rest of the cr*p are MLS.
Carcass and Macabre were always gimmick/joke bands to some degree, as was Napalm Death early era which most people remember for its novelty. Normies loved grindcore then. I would add Carbonized and Blood to the list of GOATs, as well as the incomprehensible but facile Disharmonic Orchestra. As far as I can tell, Cryptic Slaughter basically invented grindcore and awaited someone else to formalize it.
Blood and Gridlink are the two greatest grind bands ever.
Post-1990s metal: “forget riffs talking to each other! Saturation in atmosphere is the future!”
Gridlink: NO
which of the two bands ended their career in glory and which ended up pathetically throwing tantrums?
Carcass and Napalm Death have gone out badly.
After a non-starter of an album, Terrorizer came back with Hordes of Zombies which is a strong placement in my grindcore top ten.
Carbonized said everything they needed to, then created an interesting weird album, then created a fruity irrelevant weird album, and after that called it a day.
Repulsion seems to have seen that less is more. Horrified is in pretty much every collection. It is like a Misfits of underground grind.
ROLL CALL!! Ok everybody LISTEN UP this is SHAWN WRIGHT from LASHING DEATH METAL (I’m here with my guitarist geodie) First of all I don’t give a DAMN about terrorizer or ANY OTHER band out they’re trying to copy me. This only proves what I’ve been saying all along that your all going to BOW DOWN to me and LASHING DEATH METAL straight out of Baltimore. Things may be taking a little longer than I expected but with my homies support and my girlfriend (she supports me as a gay man) so what?
Look here’s the BOTTOM LINE when I’m sitting home cashing royalty checks from my demos bands like terrorizer will still be fighting for scraps.
I’m announcing it here FIRST EXCLUSIVE our new bass player is PHIL KUSABS from Blasphemy and Diocletian! Sure Phil has had legal problems involving CHILD CORN but I think his video production and “photography skills” can bring a hole new dimension to my band LASHING DEATH METAL!
We’re TAKING OVER the Baltimore scene get on bored or get ROLLED OVER!
You sound like Watain bruh
Thanks for posting this. I really enjoyed the commentary – very insightful. I have no idea where you get the time to do all this stuff, but it’s for sure appreciated on this end.
Maybe this is just info everyone here already knows, but Morbid Angel covered Terrorizer for a while since the original band never really toured. From the footage I’ve seen they looked like great shows that paid well deserved tribute to great music. At one point Trey talked about wanting to do a side project along the lines of Terrorizer, but obviously that never came about. Same thing happened with whatever he was going to write with Mike Davis. Maybe those ideas ended up in MA material.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcDFPF0m220
This topic also reminded me of a good interview from a few years ago with Pete and Lee Harrison. It’s not riveting or anything, but kind of a good origin story of that time in metal from their perspective.
It has been a couple years, but when I saw Terrorizer perform live at about a 150 person venue it was fantastic. These days I stand in the back sipping a beer, but they sounded great and the crowd up front was electric. Plus Lee playing guitar for them was an awesome choice and he did a fantastic job.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szpoHlNO6cg
Who need time to sleep, when we have coffee?
Must have been an amazing show.
Morbid Angel has always been Trey plus a dominant personality. When Vincent left, Trey decided he wanted to be both jazz fusion, since Vincent tried to become Pantera with a death metal twist and that repulsed the faithful audience. When that backfired, he decided to become both Rammstein and Pantera, ending up with Ilud Divinum in Anus. Their peak was Blessed Are the Sick but doing that again was hard, so they started compromising with Covenant, parts of which are fantastic but as a whole is a collection of spare parts.
Weird pick. I always favoured Covenant > Altars/Abominations > Blessed. Can’t find a single non-David Vincent album I enjoy. Domination was obviously insipid ****.
Didn’t Morbid Angel share a drummer with Terrorizer btw?
I agree that Morbid Angel has always been a charismatic front man along side an autistic guitar genius. They’re kind of like the death metal version of Van Halen in that sense. Plenty of great music though. Putting out three excellent albums in what was an emerging genre along with a couple very good ones later on is worth giving praise to here and there. Not everyone can do it.
After Gateways Trey probably should have ended MA and started a side project. But it’s his life and not listening to stuff he makes is easy enough.
Let us put it this way: if Morbid Angel had died in a freak leaf blower accident after Blessed Are the Sick, they would be remembered as prescient insightful creative geniuses.
If they had died after Covenant? Slightly less so.
After that expectations went downward to what we have now, which is the impression that they were a hair metal band that lucked onto a good formula for death metal.
I almost always dig that homage albums: the Mortician one, Bolt Thrower (a French one), Impetigo, Gut… All good records IMHO. The only one I did not like was the Repulsion one.
Some new stuff I liked quite a bit: Bocc (crushing mid-tempo), Leprophiliac (super old school), Tenebro (the Liberaci EP) (vicious), Trollcave (the record that has the word “Gloom” in it) (Therogothon meets Anatomia meets more Funeral Doom/Son of a b***h Death Metal) Happy new year.
Anal Cunt and Vaginal Jesus are the only grind you need, the rest is proto antifa/queer hipster punk metal.
Anal Cunt was the epitome of hipster music. Tee hee, so funny, it’s all a joke. Vaginal Jesus was someone saying the quiet part out loud and making it mean so it was funny. Why not just say the quiet part out loud in a constructive and positive way? We have a world to conquer and everyone is sitting around plotting suicide.
grindcore joke bands need to end
Generally joke bands are an admission of üntermensch status. Remember Green Jello? And how Carcass got tongue-in-cheek during their “go woke, get buck broke” years?
Except dead horse. Always dead horse.
I do not think that is a joke band at all. They have a sense of humor like many of the European bands do, and liked to do goofy stuff, but there music was not based on gimmicks.
They’re not gimmicky, but humor seems an integral part of their expression (along with all the other traits of Haaga’s mind). “A band with jokes” rather than “a band as a joke.”
He liked his weird sense of humor, then backed off of it once the hipsters burned it down.
That’s like calling Carnivore a joke band
“Bands that make jokes” =/= “joke band,” of course. Even DRI threw in a lot of humor. But it was not the basis of their appeal.
Some bands are just jokes. That’s another issue.
you don’t conquer shit without guys like Seth
Any time you attract a crowd who needs simplisticism, you get idiocy. The Vaginal Jesus team was more talented than they realized but needed to just man up and be brave about it.
To be fair, its quite hard to distinguish jokes from srs bsns when it comes to alcoholic addicts, sometimes one morphs into another.
youre not usually this gay Brett
somebody mustve shit in your beans on toast or whatever Limey LARPing food you had for breakfast
I am 100% gay and transsexual, simply because I detest the bigotry against them even if many are annoying and fake. There are a lot of hipsters LARPing as homosexuals these days.