World Downfall by Terrorizer - RYM/Sonemic (2024)

The_Trickster Oct 23 2008

I know how important this album is. It's certainly one of the earliest grindcore albums along with Carcass, Repulsion and Napalm Death's work. It's also got some great musicianship, particularly by Pete Sandoval on drums from Morbid Angel. Some riffs are excellent and there are bunch of tracks I really dig, particularly After World Obliteration, Storm of Stress, Fear of Napalm, Enslaved by Propaganda, Dead Shall Rise and World Downfall. The problem with the album though is that after about 15 minutes all the tracks start to blend together. If I listen to 2 or 3 tracks I think they're really quite cool. But if I listen to the whole album straight, it just gets boring. The song structures and vocal patterns are really quite similar throughout.

All up I think these guys found a great sound that would influence heaps of bands, and there are definitely sections on World Downfall that are to be enjoyed, but this is just not an overly amazing album for me.

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Novembre Apr 29 2008

This could easily be mistaken for a run of the mill new album as it doesn't sound so primitive. Should we give extra stars for it being 1989? Hmm.. no. not even old. Look at all the other big Metal bands that were around. I'm not really into Grind except Misery Index but Napalm Death were better, surely.. (winge winge) Not that we have to compare everything all the time but there's some more.. pointless rambling. Will give another listen or two. (or 4, being Grind!)

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brutalphilosophy Apr 07 2008

16 soundbites of news reports dealing with political unrest, endless war, drug and human trafficking, subtle means of population control, consumer hypnosis, rapes and murders... acts of violence and evil; a montage of the uncomfortable, the unjust, the real.

The pinnacle of grindcore.

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cirithungol Jun 28 2007

I’m loath to admit that for along time, I labored under the delusion that L.A.’s Terrorizer was a side project of Morbid Angel. However after reading Albert Mundrian’s remarkable book on death metal, Choosing Death, I’ve come to realize they were a long standing grindcore act that featured future Morbid drummer Pete Sandoval in their original ranks. Ah well, live and learn, yes? Whatever the pedigree, Terrorizer consisted of original dudes Oscar Garcia (vocals, who would also perform and record with another Cali death/grind act, Nausea) Pete Sandoval, guitarist Jesse Pintado and Morbid Angel’s David Vincent helping out with the bass duties. The album discussed herein is a re-recording of demo tape material the band had released over the years, and stands as one of the most technically perfect, raging and intimidating grindcore albums ever. 16 tracks of nuclear bombs, corporate greed, political abuse and other fun lyrical themes are delivered with a sound that borrows heavily from Napalm Death’s more metallic moments. However, the precision of execution and crisp sound here (thank producer Scot Burns), give Terrorizer a stance of their own, and one that would justly be worshiped/imitated by future grinding legions.

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grauer_taenzelbarde Mar 24 2024 ▼

I know that this album is very influential and important for Grindcore as a genre, but i will not rate it based off of that simply because i want to have an unbiased look on the album

Pretty constant sound, not a lot of changes. There is some playing with the rhythm in some songs which i like for the most part.
Just straight up grind, really good grind tho. Nothing that really surprises me or stands out a lot, still ahead of it's time IMO

6,6/10

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Splinteredsilhouette Mar 18 2024

I find it surprising how much this album splits opinion on this website, but then… Scum isn’t even f*cking bolded which sums up everything you need to know about some people ‘opinions’ here. I did think World Downfall would be more revered than it is though, and not because its truly great, but because its one of the first of its kind, has a future Napalm Death guitarist and of course, Pete f*cking Sandoval of Morbid Angel fame drumming. It ticks all of the cult release boxes, but it does seemingly split opinion. Of course, the drumming doesn’t split any opinion and is clearly the best f*cking drumming on any Grind album of its time. Sandoval is just an absolutely insane drummer after all and he sounds like a professional playing against amateurs when it comes to this level of extremity in the late 80’s.

The biggest criticism I have read about it is that all the songs sound the same. Great insight guys, welcome to Grindcore. The other criticism I am seeing is that despite claims to the contrary, Terrorizer weren’t actually the first ever Deathgrind band… Like, OK? So what? Is the album worse because someone else did Deathgrind first? I don’t get that criticism at all. Mentally Murdered isn’t even the first Napalm Death record, never mind first Grindcore album, its still one of the best things ever recorded. It like saying “Nice Ferrari mate, but its not even the first ever car, so I’m gonna have to rate it lower”. It doesn’t make sense.

Anyway, now that we have Ben Shapiro’d some wrongthink, what of World Downfall? 5 Stars amirite? Well, no cos as good as this is, its not the best thing ever. And as much Grind as is actually here, this always struck me as some kids playing Slayer songs and not having the musical talents to up the extremity without losing the complexity. A sort of ‘accidental Grind’ record, perhaps anyway. It doesn’t really matter though; the end result is 36 minutes of grinding intensity. Its more Metal than Hardcore, but it is really f*cking fun. Its not the kind of album to topple Governments with like some of its contempories, but if you just want to get drunk and mosh, its perfect.

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linesinwaxxx Nov 13 2023

(April 2020)

What can be said about this classic of the genre? We can pretend that later Terrorizer doesn’t exist if that makes you feel any better! Ha! Y’know how people always say that grindcore is a mixture between the craziest parts of hardcore punk and metal? Well, World Downfall really perfected the metallic side of grindcore for me. Each song is a ripper, but not in the looser, chaotic ways displayed by stalwarts Napalm Death – Terrorizer’s record is much more disciplined and streamlined. It’s more precise. A deadly record, no doubt.

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MorgueILJ Jun 30 2023

Strong start but declines in quality by the end, still I have to give it the respect that it deserves because this clearly was one of the most influential albums in extreme music

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