Event:	Wormrot: Season Of Violence Tour 2023
Written by:	Abattoir
Published:	05.04.2023

Wormrot were on a massive touring spree throughout European cities with 47 scheduled shows in total. Touring in support of their highly acclaimed and MSA-winning record Hiss, the duo was joined on stage throughout the whole trek by Argentinian vocalist Gabriel "Gabbo" Dubko of Implore (the German grindcore band). Gabriel has been filling in for live performances since the band parted ways with vocalist/founding member Arif Suhaimi in summer 2022.




The band got my attention back in 2016 with the release of their third full-length offering, Voices, which was one of the strongest ones within the genre that year and consequently got additional, well-deserved recognition of "wider" audience as well as among peers of the grindcore scene. After a six-year time gap, the expectations of the incoming successor were justifiably high. Then Hiss came… and it came down strikingly hard. The last time with Arif and his monstrous vocals, this outing has brought satisfaction to many people with its vicious, unstoppable attack and high-quality production. Consequently, this has earned the band the chance to promote their new export to the audiences across the globe. Luckily, the European continent was the first one they headed to.




Wormrot served us with approximately 25 tracks in total and a bit less than an hour-long set. It might seem not much, but for this sort of a blasting experience the duration was acceptable. As expected, the majority (more than half) of the set represented tracks from the aforementioned record, Hiss. For me personally, the strongest element on stage was the guitars handled by the band’s sole original member, Rasyid Juraimi, despite the insane drumming. However, when it comes to vocals, that’s where the sign of weakness poured during the performance. I’m aware that it is not completely fair to compare live vocals to the ones we hear on the album, but still, there was that sense of lacking of true monster-power execution that Arif possess.

Of course I was not rendered equanimous because of that, since I had been quite pumped prior this gig. And seeing them live for the first time did fulfill my expectations after all. A question arises, though, of when the next opportunity will appear. I hope they will manage to find a new permanent vocalist in near future.