A fungal disappointment
You don't get many bands named after a fungal infection do you? Can you think of any bands called Athlete's Foot, Fungal Nail infection or Thrush? No? Ringworm, alas have not named themselves after any nasty affliction but have taken their name from one of horror impresario Vincent Price's movies. Heralding from Cleveland, Ohio and together for the pat six years, the band have had come back together after a break away and unleashed another audio assault on your hearing. But it appears that on their hiatus, with things like family and jobs getting in the way, they forgot to push themselves as musicians and ended up just recycling old material.
The impressively titled "The Venomous Grand Design" is sadly not translated into a brilliant album. This Victory release is just yet another in a long line of incredibly samey and ultimately dreary metalcore nonsense. Lots of guttural roaring and shouting is on display here but there is not much else. Although this band can play well and obviously are passionate about what they do, the album just falls flat. This sounds like a band with other things on their minds and you get the feeling that they are just releasing something for the diehard fans rather than creating something new and ultimately something that will stand apart from other bands in their genre.
With most songs at a touch over two minutes, you still can't help but get that niggly feeling of not being able to wait until the album is over and that you've heard it all before. But there is also a feeling that there is probably quite an incendiary bands hiding under this album, but it is incredibly well hidden under all these reused patterns. The Slash-esque guitar work of Suicidal Visions is an example of this cut and stick technique they seem to have used. Although the guitar lifts the track slightly, adding this fret wankery just makes you further unconvinced at their abilities as a band.
Ringworm are probably a very good band, but this album may not impress anyone as it doesn't stand up and proclaim itself worthy. In a climate when these bands are ten a penny, no matter how long you have been in a scene or no matter how much you have ingratiated yourself in a musical community, it is the music which speaks above all things and this album does not sing out of success.