Band:	Ringworm
Album:	Seeing Through Fire
Style:	Hardcore Punk, Crossover thrash metal
Release date:	August 2023

01. Seeing Through Fire
02. Carved In Stone
03. No Solace, No Quarter, No Mercy
04. Death Hoax
05. Thought Crimes
06. Unavoidable Truth
07. House Of Flies
08. You Want It To
09. Mental Decontrol
10. Power And Blood
11. Playing God

Are you feeling angry or frustrated by any chance? Well, this album will surely tip you over the edge. Just make sure no one's in proximity when your eardrums are going through this massively aggressive and heavy onslaught.

It's now been thirty-two years since the establishment of Cleveland's hardcore punk/crossover thrash act Ringworm, who formed back in 1991. Now, the band return four years after their 2019 album Death Becomes My Voice, unleashing what is now their ninth release to date and, arguably, their most heavy, unforgiving, and savage effort of all: Seeing Through Fire. With just over half an hour of runtime in total, the album features eleven extremely ferocious tracks that flow in an unrelenting manner and maintaining a high level of intensity throughout. From beginning to end, that sheer intensity never lets off steam at any point. Think of this as Power Trip with an extra dose of horsepower and with some steroid-induced Pantera thrown in, and you kind of get the picture of what I'm talking about.

Let's start with the most striking element of all, one which stands out from most other crossover thrash and hardcore punk acts: the vocals. These crazy vocals are provided by none other than the original founding member Human Furnace (James Bulloch). His style is unique in the sense that he genuinely sounds as if he's going through some form of an agonizingly brutal torture method. You can use your own imagination, but, for me, I can picture him (in my own morbidly warped mind) having his insides torn from his body whilst chained to a razor bed. Although the vocals may be the key contributing factor to the aggressive brutal nature of this album, they're not the only element to facilitate this. You also have the instrumentation to take into consideration. Thanks to the thrashy riffing and soloing of guitar duo Matt Sorg and Mike Lare, Ed Stephens's badass double bass work, and Ryan Steigerwald's crazy d-beat drumming, you have here the perfect recipe for the Human Furnace to go about his agonizingly torturous vocals.

The album throws you directly into the midst of chaos from the opening title track "Seeing Through Fire" with its rabid, thrashy yet groovy riffs, ruthless shredding solos, heavy double bass, manic pounding d-beats, and, of course, the deafening, uncontrollable, angry shouts. This opening track really sets the mood of what's to come for the duration of the album, and if you think you'll get a breather at any point during the next half hour of listening, then think again. You won't even have time to think, let alone breathe.

I'm not going to even try and break the album down to you track-by-track. This is a classic crossover thrash flow and structure, and, with each track being only several minutes in length and being over in a flash, highlighting stand-out tracks is merely an impossible task in this case. So, experiencing this album as a whole as if it's just one crazy half-hour track, is a necessity. I haven't personally seen this band perform live myself, but I can tell you that Seeing Through Fire would provide the perfect platform for a live performance aimed to entertain the most hardcore of modern punk rockers who want to gather in a mosh-pit and just go wild and mental. The production is more than ideal for allowing this experience to work. The elements are deliberately loud and proud in your face, the bass and guitar tone is earth-shattering, the drumming remains powerful throughout, and the vocals are never held back once. There is as much grooviness in the riffing as there is sheer heaviness and power. The drumming is as strikingly rhythmic as it is ferocious, the solos are, for the most part, memorable and excellently performed, and, if you can succumb to those agonizing vocals, you'll be in for a real treat.

Whereas Seeing Through Fire can be considered the most hardcore of punk and the most thrashy of all thrash, that could also be considered the album's downfall. The album could perhaps come across as one-dimensional for some listeners, and the sheer aggression might even get too overpowering at times. Not to worry though: if you're simply seeking something to go mental to, Seeing Through Fire is most definitely the ideal headbanging solution for you.