Wormrot is a Singaporean grindcore band formed in 2007, immediately after the founding members had completed their mandatory two years of national service. The band have released three full-length studio albums to date, as well as a number of EPs and split releases with other bands. Their latest full-length album Voices was released on October 14, 2016 through Earache Records. They have been described as one of the top 10 grindcore bands by OC Weekly, and have toured Europe, and the United States. In 2017, they became the first Singaporean act to ever play at the prestigious Glastonbury Festival.
History
The band was discovered in late December 2009 by Digby Pearson, the owner of record labelEarache, in a mixtape posted on the Invisible Oranges blog. After hearing the song "Born Stupid" on the compilation, Pearson searched out and downloaded Wormrot's full-length debut, Abuse, from file-sharing site MediaFire. Pearson was impressed with the album's quality and the band's "ambition, hard work ethic, and willingness to put and Asian grindcore in the global map." Pearson approached the band on their Myspace page, asking if they were interested in joining Earache's roster. The band signed a recording contract with Earache in late January 2010. Earache reissued Abuse in Europe on 13 April 2010 and in the United States on 8 June 2010. To promote the album's reissue, Wormrot toured Europe between late April and June 2010 and USA between mid August and September 2010. Their second studio album, Dirge, was released on 3 May 2011 through Earache Records. The album received positive reviews from AllMusic writer Phil Freeman and other critics. The band released an EP titled 'Noise' digitally through Scion AV on 20 September 2011. The EP was distributed as a download for free. Wormrot went on an extended US tour in early March and April 2011 and a European tour in August–September 2011. In January 2012, they had toured Indonesia and their last European tour was in June–July 2012. In a summer 2012 interview, the band commented that they would be taking a three-to-four-year break, during which they would continue writing material for another album. On April 6, 2015 the band announced that Fitri had been removed from the band by Arif and Rasyid. The current status of Fitri is unknown, with the band writing that "For the past couple of weeks, he has distanced himself from us and has remained incontactable . We fear that he has gotten himself into some shit too deep, he’s not comfortable to share with us. If any of his friends who are reading this have any news regarding Fitri, let him know that we’re waiting for any kind of reply. Any." In June 2015 the band announced that they had recruited a new drummer, Vijesh Ghariwala, and would be continuing work on recording their third full-length album. On 20 July 2016 the band's third studio album 'Voices' was revealed with an album trailer featuring a new song titled 'Fallen Into Disuse'. The band later recorded a music video for this song in support of the album's release. According to Arif, the song is about "unconscious abandonment from reality. Desperately trying to be accepted into the norm. At the very least. Failed miserably." Other songs including were also premiered in advance of the album's release, and the album was made available to stream in full on Noisey on October 13. Voices was released on October 14, 2016 through Earache Records.
