It's rather sad that a band as influential as Ringworm has been reduced to being promoted as 'featuring members of Terror.' By no means is this a knock at Terror, they're a solid band and extremely entertaining in a live setting. But Ringworm is a band that has been around for over a decade. During that time the band released the phenomenal album The Promise, whose influence you can hear in the likes of Hatebreed, Sworn Enemy, and Terror, among countless others.
Since their last recording the band has undergone a few lineup changes. The most notable addition is that of drummer Danny Zink of Pitboss 2000 fame to the fold. Zink hits the kit much harder than his predecessor and has a knack for the fast-paced approach to hardcore the band has undertaken. Tracks like 'Justice Replaced by Revenge,' 'Ghosts of the Past,' and 'Devil's Kiss' are dominated by the machine-gun riffs of Frank '3-Gun' Novenic and Matt Sorg. Teaming the guitar duo with that of Zink and Steve Rauchorst's thundering basslines results is some of the finest hardcore songs of the year - 'God Eat God' and 'Life After the End of the World.'
Throughout their livelihood, there has been one staple for Ringworm that has set them apart from the hordes of wannabes, The Human Furnace. With his demonic screams, The Furnace has one of the most identifiable vocal approaches in all of hardcore. And when you partner his scathing screams and dark lyrical content with the music, the results are undeniable.
'Whiskey Drunk' is an instrumental with a beautiful acoustic guitar that immediately brought to mind Metallica's 'To Live is to Die.' This superb composition, though it lasts just over a minute, is one of the aspects that helps set Ringworm apart from their peers.
The fact remains that at their core Ringworm is a metallic hardcore band. No better examples of this are the two re-recorded tracks from their split 7' with Terror - 'No One Dies Alone' and 'House of Hell.' Both mix frantic hardcore/punk with chunky breakdowns, the latter also features a killer guitar solo.
One of my disappointments with the album is with its production. On Birth is Pain, the boys teamed up with Bill Korecky, who has a knack for producing crisp and clean recordings, yet still capturing the rawness of hardcore/punk music. There is a reason he's worked with the names that he has. Well this time Ringworm went with Ben Schigel (Chimaira, Run Devil Run) and the result was not that good. This is surprising because his previous work has been very clean and polished. Nevertheless, the mix here is extremely muddy.
Justice Replaced by Revenge is a fucking rager of an album and if Ringworm keeps putting out records such as this, they'll no doubt outlive the host of bands riding their coattails.
