I assume most people will have probably watched Paul Verhoeven’s epic 1997 sci-fi soap opera ‘Starship Troopers.’ Insect Warfare certainly have. Probably whilst they have been at it they have also sat up all night snorting bug powder and watching ‘Them,’ ‘Damnation Alley’ ‘Empire Of The Ants’ ‘Arachnophobia’ ‘Ticks’ ‘Naked Lunch’ and I could go on and on believe me, but you get the point. They do give the opinion that they do not like creepy crawlies very much and this is the soundtrack to them taking over the earth. As per ‘Starship Troopers’ (and I just realised that this is the second nod toward Robert A Heinlein in 2 reviews) this is one fast and furious assault and one without a shred of mercy. Insect Warfare hark back to the days that Digby started Earache Records, right down to the glorious old school cover. Basically Insect extermination grind like a bastard and then some.
It is at this point the reviewer decides that he is going to follow his normal review path and type up his thoughts in real time as the album plays.
Go for a piss during this and you are going to miss 4 or 5 tracks as it dishes out no less than 20 of them in 22 minutes. The first ‘Oxygen Corrosion’ sounds like a symphony of locusts destroying all in their path. Everything else joins in after this and ‘Self Termination’ plays faster than I could possibly type. Blasting away with pig grunt vocals and loud screams this is obviously going to draw comparisons to the likes of early Napalm Death, Electro Hippies et al but this is not exactly trying to rewrite any rule book so why the hell not? ‘Enslaved By Machinery’ does on the whole terminate but then again the band do slow down with a brief doomy groove before firing out one final catastrophic explosion.
A track by track dissection would, unlike trying to relive that anatomy scene in the previously mentioned film, be pretty pointless. Besides from what I remember they were actually looking to see if the insects had a brain or higher intelligence. It could be said there is none here, just a band wanting to play incredibly fast and grind.
Right where was I, ‘Street Sweeper’ well I was it’s finished now and at 13 seconds long that is not surprising. I am also realising that I am going to have to go back and heavily punctuate this after completion as commas are not the sort of thing this lot leave any time for. Taking a swig of coffee to allow me to go that bit faster seems a good idea and I really get down to the swaggering punk grind of ‘Human Suffering’ and the limbering up start of ‘Hydraphobia’ whilst trying to mop the hot spillage off my lap.
Going back to a bit earlier and I was not convinced that this is the soundtrack to the forthcoming entomological genocide (excellent elongated yell at end ‘Mind Ripper’ by the way) of mankind; any fool knows the zombies will get there first. But that said it is a damn good soundtrack for doing the cleaning to. Only problem was I had to play it three times just to get the living room done.
Track 13 ‘Mass Communication Mindfuck’ well that is kind of apt I certainly feel like I have a headache, a lie down could be a really good idea and perhaps playing something more soothing, compared to the violent retching spewing out my speakers at the moment it should be easy to find. Oh did a track just finish, appears so ‘Paranoia’ is that the door being pounded on the neighbours banging on the wall? Arrgghhh it’s all getting a bit too much! Never mind there is a track called Lobotomized coming up soon; that sounds nice.
Bugs, all I see is bugs. Remember that segment in Creepshow? Ugh it’s playing through my mind now and making me itch. Only problem being if I scratched this fast I would probably peel my skin off. Getting there, only a couple of songs left for them to drill into the head, yes ‘Lobotomized’ was a good one. How about ‘Evolved Into Obliteration?’ That sounds like it could be a bit heavy, oh fuck I feel sick………………… The sound of silence ah bliss!
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