Ringworm CD review
Ringworm
Justice Replaced By Revenge
(Victory)
Cleveland metal heroes find their favorite early-’90s Slayer and Pantera albums, mash away.
The uncanny marriage of Slayer’s “Dittohead” and Pantera’s “Strength Beyond Strength” on the title track to Ringworm’s latest merits listening to the rest of the album until you realize the imagination stops where it starts. Obviously more on the hardcore side of the fence, little is made subtle on *Justice*, straight down to the guitarists’ preference for Jeff Hanneman’s leads over the chaotic chromatics of Kerry King. The bloody “House Of Hell” could be metal Fugazi before the obligatory leads cut in, and that’s generally how Ringworm cut themselves down. “This is gonna be a metal record dammit, ‘cuz if we’re not a metal band I don’t know what I’ll tell my friends.”
3
— Steve Forstneger
