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When I was a teenager in the United Kingdom, I recall people of my parents\u2019 generation rolling their eyes in disgust when the radio or TV played music made by and aimed at young people. They regarded the musicians as \u2018uncouth\u2019 and \u2018disrespectful\u2019 \u2013 the Sex Pistols, for example, fronted by a young Johnny Rotten, sneering their way through God Save the Queen<\/em>, or Mot\u00f6rhead, fronted by a young Lemmy, growling their way through Ace of Spades<\/em> \u2013 and the music itself as \u2018just a racket\u2019.\u00a0 There was, these members of the older generation agreed, only one way to cure the malaise of delinquency and degeneracy that\u2019d afflicted younger folk and turned them into noisy spiky-haired louts and noisy long-haired hooligans\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNational service!\u201d they\u2019d agree.\u00a0 \u201cBring back national service!\u00a0 That\u2019d teach these young whippersnappers some manners!\u00a0 That\u2019d sort them out!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Well, the existence of the Singaporean band Wormrot nullifies that argument.\u00a0 They are evidence that national service may not<\/em> be the antidote some think it is for curing society\u2019s younger members of their urge to make loud, unruly and unholy music. For the band formed in the late 2000s immediately after<\/em> its founding members, vocalist Arif Suhaimi, guitarist Rasyid Juraimi and drummer Fitri completed<\/em> the two years of national service that Singapore requires of its young male citizens.\u00a0 \u00a0Having hung up their uniforms and become Wormrot, the trio dedicated themselves to the noisy subgenre of grindcore, which Juraimi once described in an interview<\/a> as \u201ca bastard child of punk and metal with less limitation.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Wormrot have achieved some notable things.\u00a0 They were the first Singaporean act to play at Britain\u2019s Glastonbury Festival<\/a>, in 2017, though they had to perform in unusually cramped conditions \u2013 their stage was inside a train carriage, with its seats removed, which\u2019d been dubbed the \u2018Earache Express\u2019.\u00a0 And they\u2019ve supported the legendary Napalm Death<\/a>.\u00a0 Even people who\u2019ve never listened to grindcore, and have no idea what it is, know the name \u2018Naplam Death\u2019.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And fabulously, it was at one of their French concerts in 2012 that pictures of \u2018Biquette the Grindcore Goat<\/a>\u2019 first went viral.\u00a0 Biquette was, yes, a goat.\u00a0 She was rescued from a milking factory and adopted by a communal farm, and she famously enjoyed being at the front of the crowd at heavy metal and punk concerts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n From disciplinemag.com <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yet things looked slightly bleak for Wormrot in recent years.\u00a0 Fitri departed from the band in 2015, with Vijesh Ghariwala taking over the drumkit for the next nine years.\u00a0 However, the band was less able to absorb the blow of losing vocalist Suhaimi in 2022.\u00a0 They had to embark on a world tour using Gabriel Dubko (of the German band Implore) as a temporary, stand-in singer.\u00a0 As a result, they arrived back in Singapore lacking the services of a full-time vocalist.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Happily, both Suhaimi and Fitri rejoined Wormrot in 2024, meaning the band has now reverted to its original line-up. The middle of this month saw them appear at an event with the self-explanatory title SG Metal Mayhem V<\/em>, held at the Singaporean venue Phil Studio. Though Wormrot were the third of four bands on the bill, and thus weren\u2019t the headliners, I suspect it was their presence that attracted the bulk of the local crowd \u2013 this was a chance to see the rejuvenated band back in business.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t leave work until after SG Metal Mayhem V<\/em> had started and unfortunately I missed the opening act, Microchip Terror<\/a>, an artist who specialises in \u2018electronic body horror music\u2019.\u00a0 I\u2019ve listened to some of his stuff online and, to me, it seems an intriguing blend of Nine Inch Nails, synthy old John-Carpenter movie scores and death metal vocals.\u00a0 I made it there in time to catch the second band, the Japanese outfit Kruelty who, their website<\/a> claims, \u201cfind that sweet spot\u2026 of heavy beatdown hardcore and 90s American \/ Scandinavian death \/ doom metal\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Kruelty\u2019s vocalist Zuma (Kohei Azuma) was in fine growly form and their set was well-received.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Also growly and well-received were the evening\u2019s headliners, the veteran \u2013 on the go since 1990 \u2013 Brazilian death metal band Krisiun<\/a>.\u00a0 This outfit\u2019s line-up consists of three brothers: vocalist and bassist Alex Camargo, guitarist Moyses Kolesne and drummer Max Kolesne.\u00a0 When I think of bands containing three or more siblings, the Bee Gees, the Osmonds, the Jackson 5, Hanson and the Corrs spring to mind, but Krisiun are a wee bit less\u2026 genteel<\/em> than that lot.\u00a0 With their beards, long hair, denims and tattoos, they have an outlaw-ish \/ biker-ish vibe.\u00a0 If Lemmy had ever played a warlord in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie \u2013 he was in one such movie once<\/a>, but in a minor role \u2013 I could imagine this trio playing his phalanx of bodyguards.\u00a0 Anyway, Krisiun delivered the goods at SG Metal Mayhem V<\/em>, their aggressive vocals and brutal sound offset by some impressively virtuoso guitar-playing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But before that, the crowd got to see \u2013 and certainly got to hear<\/em> \u2013 local heroes Wormrot.\u00a0 The cacophony they produced, and its pleasures, are best summed up by a comment about them I read on Reddit<\/a>.\u00a0 After attending a Wormrot gig, the writer \u201ccouldn\u2019t hear the whole way home\u201d and a ringing in his ears \u201cdidn\u2019t go away for a couple days,\u201d but… \u201cIt was fantastic.\u201d\u00a0 Yes, by standing within earshot of Juraimi\u2019s manic guitarwork, and Fitri\u2019s frenzied drumming, and Suhaimi\u2019s inhuman screeching, you\u2019re subjecting yourself to a massive sonic assault.\u00a0 But the experience is strangely wonderful.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The delighted crowd showed their appreciation by forming a mosh-pit \u2013 though this being Singapore, it was a slightly less bone-juddering mosh-pit than in other metal gigs in other parts of the world.\u00a0 It more resembled a demented conga-line.\u00a0 There were also attempts at crowd-surfing, though these threatened to end up like Jack Black\u2019s famously disastrous attempt to crowd-surf<\/a> in School of Rock<\/em> (2003).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And sweetly, I think I saw someone wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words Grindcore Goat<\/em>.\u00a0 Rest in Peace, Biquette.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When I was a teenager in the United Kingdom, I recall people of my parents\u2019 generation rolling their eyes in disgust when the radio or TV played music made by and aimed at young people. 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