Shane Clark and Matt Wood have been jamming music together for about 22 years. They started Worse in 2008 while both of them were between tours from their respective bands at the time ( Shane was in 3 Inches of Blood and Matt was in Pride Tiger ) and called it a side project that really only happened a couple times a year when the ol’ road doggin would take it easy. They finally ended up making a demo that ended up being a “cassette only” release on WarCrime records. Boom- fast forward to 2020 and here they are, boom, a couple of pals writing and recording music for the sake of writing and recording music. They call it Rock and Roll, heavy, fat rock and roll.
And that is exactly what this is. It’s pure heavy rock in an uncompromising way and it gets the juices flowing like nothing else. From opening track “Depress Mode” that oozes biker attitude to the monstrous instrumental sludge closer “Waylaid by Reality“, Worse has come up with an album that’s filled with some of the most dirtiest riffs you’ll hear in a while.
The experience of Shane and Mark clearly has an impact in the way the songs sound and have been structured and their various influences shine through in a myriad of ways. One of the highlights here is the hardcore punk sounding “Grummly Guts” which comes in short and fast, it’s grimey sound also giving it a different flavor outside of that heavier hardcore style. It does remind me a little of a band called The Mark Of Cain so those in the know and are fans of that sort of unique grungey sound may dig right into this.
“Dogsbody” gives the listener a bit of breathing space as the gas is slightly stepped off for a more streamlined hard rock tone but just as fun to listen to as anything else on the album. The interestingly titled “Pret Near” takes that grungey sound even further but adding a lot more twists and turns for a bit more of a surprising adventure while “Salao” sort of continues the grungey theme with a rockin’ track reminiscent of early Soundgarden.
There’s plenty to get into here and while it’s difficult to really pigeonhole one exact description for all the songs collectively, it’s just a damn good heavy rock record that doesn’t lose momentum from start to finish.
8/10
TRACKLIST
Depress Mode
Grummly Guts
Dogsbody
Pret Near
Salao
Waylaid by Reality