Terrorizer "World Downfall" Earache records 1989

Once in a while you'll come across a truly remarkable album. A masterwork of the metal genre. An album that's one of few, but really stands head and shoulders above the rest. World Downfall is one such record. It's just damn near perfect. No other "grind" albums save "Horrified" even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence. 

To begin, the production is excellent. Probably Scott Burns' best. The instruments are well balanced but definitely "raw". Jesse Pintado's guitar is thick and nasty, with head-splitting heaviness and a low death metal pitch. That's to help remind you that you're listening to metal, not the high-speed political punk of a certain English quartet. David Vincent plays a crushing, ultra-distorted bass, though his playing typically follows the guitar except on a few occasions. Oscar Garcia has a deep, harsh growl (about halfway between Jeff Becerra and Symphonies of Sickness-era Jeff Walker) that really sets the atmosphere of death and despair, two of the more dominant lyrical subjects on here. The drums are solid, and the bass drums have a distinct thump rather than the hated "clicking" that would soon become a Scott Burns trademark.

The riffing is relentless, but truly exceptional in that Pintado doesn't need to play at light speed to be effective. Example: the beginning mid-paced groove of "Fear of Napalm", one of the album's many memorable riffs. However, it's drummer Pete Sandoval's performance that takes the cake. His playing is mind-boggling; hyper-fast, yet incredibly precise. No sloppiness here. Listen to the many drum fills on the opening track, or any other for that matter. He shows amazing speed and variation, two attributes rarely seen simultaneously. 

Most of the album is played at warp-speed, but the band can change tempos at the flick of a switch. Songs like "Corporation Pull-In" and the title track have (relatively) mid-paced riffs that simply dominate. But it's that blast beat and those shredding six-strings everywhere else that define the album. Put Reign in Blood, Dealing With It, Scum, and Seven Churches in a blender set to "liquefy" and you might end up with this. 

It's a shame that the band split up around the time of World Downfall's release. They deserve a lot of respect for this album. When heavy music comes to mind, most metalheads don't mention this band. However, don't let their ignorance mislead you. World Downfall is the complete package.

There is still little room for subtlety. Blast beats abound, the lyrics pull no punches, and the shout-along choruses (if you're quick enough to spot them) are utterly bestial. At it's time of release, the speed of the music on this album was almost unheard of, with only a few bands, like Napalm Death, Carcass, and Extreme Noise Terror doing anything which even came close. Unlike those bands, Terrorizer was an incredibly tight unit, and didn't need to rely on high velocity to cover any shortcomings in musicianship. 

Terrorizer was a bit of a Grindcore supergroup. Drummer Pete "Commando" Sandoval and bass player/vocalist David Vincent both played with Morbid Angel, while guitarist Jesse Pintado later joined Napalm Death.

This album can seem like a cyclonic blur from start to finish on first listen, with almost every track of the same consistency, but that's not to say they all sound the same. Standing head and decomposing shoulders above the rest of the album though is the legendary "Dead Shall Rise".