France

"Visit France... and vomit!" This could be the slogan for the third album by Wormfood. These french guys are disturbing the music scene in their country since 2001 and will not mince any matters. Instead of relating to pure misanthropy or primitive hatred towards religion, they are concerned with the grievances of society, of course not without adding a lot of black humour. So it doesn't really amazes, that El Worm and other members already supported Carnival Coal in their live line-up. Seems like there's something rotten in the state of France.

Don't worry, even if one's not able to translate all the songtitles, there is no need of further knowledge in the French language to know what the message of the lyrics is. They are half written in French and half written in English. It's quite obvious what a title like "Vieux Pedophile" (the old pedophile) heads for. It wouldn't be wrong to know some French when there are some parts that just lead over to the next topic, but it's no necessity, because ultimately the music is of importance.

After having met the probably homeless and very drunken Jacques in "Lecon de Francais", the musical side of "France" starts with "Bum Fight" and some doomy and heavy riffs. When El Worm gives the first impressions of his voice the song picks up the pace. Fortunately, he sounds somewhat like Peter Steele of Type O Negative when he is singing clean (no wonder that there's a cover version of "Christian Woman" on the japanese edition of the album). Again we meet Jacques, who begins to dance in accompaniment of an accordion, but unfortunately has to go soon when he's carried away in an ambulance. All that can be heard in the background, while the guitars are still playing, At the end "Bum Fight" becomes a bit frantic.

Without a doubt, Wormfood are skilled in staging such humorous scenes in a musical way, but at the same time this turns out to be a point of weakness on "France": There are too many passages of that kind that interrupt the music. Tracks 1, 3, 5 and 7 are just short "interludes", that are entertaining but of no further worth. The presentation of the French life is focused maybe too much, so it becomes a bit exhausting to listen to the whole album at full length. At least the interruptions end with "Vieux Pedophile", so the rest is then only music. By the way, this song also appeared on the previous albums by Wormfood, like some other songs from "France", too. Since they had no record deal back then it will be difficult to get them.

So, let's get back to the music:
Apart from singing with a deep clean voice, El Worm also often growls in an even deeper pitch and mimes the death metal singer, but without reaching the abnormal depths of some other vocalist of that genre. In case of "Vieux Pedophile", the nice neighbour, who sings a bright traditional song for some kids, then turns into a perverted maniac. The song kicks off in a dirty, speedy way, but there's only a short blastbeat part. The whole scenery is so amusing, it always changes between the friendly man with some psychopathic traits and the devil himself. This kind of humour appeals to me so much, just like Carnival in Coal. There's even a note in the booklet, that "Vieux Pedophile" is not meant to offend someone, but is a serious critique of such incidents.

And so it goes on until 47 minutes of musical lunacy have elapsed, which as I mentioned could sometimes get a bit exhausting, but are always highly entertaining. In conclusion it must be said that the problems that are treated on "France" are not of exceptionally French nature, but can be found more or less everywhere. But the French way of dealing with them in their texts and music is exclusively good and hopefully finds more and more followings within the metal scene. More turpitude by Wormfood will certainly be appreciated.

Whoa... where do you begin with such an album. Oh, I know... why not at the beginning. Seriously this album took me by surprise. I didn't think it would be nearly as good as it turned out to be. First off, this has to be one of the most funny and sadistic yet beautiful albums ever. France (the name of the album), opens with a man teaching you a quick lesson in French, entitled, "Leçon De Français / French Lesson". But as soon as the man is finished with his lesson, you see the more odd side of this music. There is nothing pretty about what comes next.


The music can best be described as "total disturbance", throughout the entire listening of this opus. The lyrical theme's of this album range from "drunkenness", to "odd humor", and even to "pedophilia", as is the case with the track "Vieux Pédophile". Wormfood really does a great job with the structure of this release. They manage to successfully combine a variety of different key sounds from other genres within their music, ( without it sounding like a complete mess). You have the black metal influences, that are very prominent throughout, as well as gothic and even thrashy sounding stuff. At times you may think you are listening to a Type O Negative album, (and that's not only because sometimes the music has the "ToN" vibe), but because the vox sound almost identical to Mr. Steel's. It's as if "El Worm", graduated from Peter Steele University. But then again, the Japanese version of this release does have a cover of Type O Negative's "Christian Woman". But enough about Mr. Steele, El Worm ,( and really every other dude here) has his / their own way's of expressing their sicknesses. And if you're turned off by the mentioning / comparison of and to "ToN", don't worry... this is still original all the way.


This is a very strange release, (to say the least). And trust me when I tell you, there is nothing in your collection that sounds like "France". This is definitely quirky, weird, br00tal, funny, scary, and pretty much any word you can think of that just describes... Odd. I found absolutely nothing about this album that I did not enjoy, and if you're into band's that make some interesting music with exceptional musical ability you will very much enjoy this too. I highly recommend this to all the French "bums" out there, roaming around the streets of Paris. Or to any metalhead looking for something very... very... awesome.