Vermin Womb is one of those bands that reminisce about wrecked neighborhoods. The feeling of an utter, haunting dark isolating that cuts straight to the bone and peels back the skin in the process. Their Throatruiner debut EP Permanence is the continuation of the brutal death/grind/sludge of Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire (which featured guitarist/vocalist Ethan Lee McCarthy and bassist Zachary Harlan) with new drummer Patrick Fiorentio.
At times it’s like a mass riot. At others it’s like trudging through tar. Permanence is exactly what you’d come to expect from a project with McCarthy (also of Primative Man which you should abso-fuckingp-lutely check out, the aforementioned Clinging to the Trees… and Death of Self). The damning filth bleeding out of this album is stellar. A lot of bands shoot for that dark, depressing, filth laden, hateful sound but Vermin Womb pulls it off in spades. The production of the album comes harsher than anything CTTTOAFF pulled off.
Permanence fuses death metal, grindcore and sludge in an almost perfect fashion. McCarthy and crew have honed their craft more with Permanence from the days of CTTTOAFF. The screeching, grinding opener “You Know Nothing” is deeper and thicker in tone. The song blazes along with unrelenting hatred, beating with a warpath-like attitude. The second track “Bitterness” spares no one either. A pure piece of grind/death through and through.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SZDhQAJRmM[/youtube]
The band slows up for sludgier bits like “9 Years Fruitless Years of Total Fucking Agony,” which simply as a title speaks miles for the way the album sounds. It’s here that the band captures more of a dark fall into the depths of despair. The song is as sorrow-addled as it is hateful. It even sounds like its channeling Barghest as it delves deeper into the song. The closer “Give” brings a smilier style to the table, making sure the EP goes out screaming in agony.
McCarthy and crew have finally captured the sound that CTTOAFF sounded like they were shooting for and in a way, I’d say this album was foreordained. This EP is the marriage of Corrupt Moral Altar and Barghest. Vermin Womb is a grinding sludge bomb straight from the pit and Permanence is the filth written upon the walls. It’s dark and ugly, savage and pissed off; ugly music for an ugly world.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxbdMiyhZyo[/youtube]
If you’re in the U.S. you can buy directly from the band here.
If you’re in EU you can buy the album from Throatruiner here.
Also, it’s free here and here.
And I'm, as always, here.
