WormZ - Emergency Alert System

The full eight track album from Italian Harshstyle duo WormZ. This offering follows on from their 2012 EP of the same name, has four new original tracks and none of the remixes.

I'm going to focus on the four new tracks on this album as Danya has already reviewed the EP and I don't feel I can add much to what has already been said.

The first of the new tracks is called "Red Queen" and is heavily influenced by the Resident Evil movie, using a lot of samples from the film to make up the majority of the lyrics which isnt a bad thing in this instance, they sound like they were meant to be there and work so well. The track itself throws you around quite a bit, a slow melodic intro that lends a somber tone to the track. It then builds up to a fast paced hardstyle middle that reminds me of Angerfist then eventually drops you back down to the slow melody, then picks you back up again...you get the picture! This isn't a track that one could easily dance to in a club but I definitely don't skip past it when I'm listening on my MP3 player.

The next of the four is a track called "550,000,000" which is a bit of a mouthful when trying to tell someone what you're listening to! my first thought is It's a song about guns as explained by the intro sample of Nic Cage from Lord of War explaining that "there are 550,000,000 firearms in worldwide circulation"...well that explains the title as the song is actually about being angry, like a gun. The synth sounds on this track are mostly glitched dial tone bleeps that sound like I'm listening to a room of broken telephones, it gets better during the verse sections...but only just. There isn't really much that makes this track really stand out and make me want to throw shapes like the others. I find the vocals on this track let it down most overall with a mix of male and female overlapped vocals throughout. the female vocals overpower the male vocals quite a bit but I cant work out if its because the mix is wrong or that I'm drawn to them because they sound out of tune, whether this was intentional or not it makes the whole thing difficult for me to listen to.

"Harshstyle" has all the makings of a club anthem, a powerful driving bass line, a catchy as hell main hook, a drum track I cant stop dancing to and great vocals you can shout along to. With a lot of Hardcore and Hardstyle influences this song powers along with the vocals keeping it dark and dirty and giving you exactly what it says on the tin...Harshstyle! This song is easily my favourite on the album and I can see it being very popular amongst hardcore and hardstyle DJ's alike.

The last of the four and also the last track on the album is called "Warmz"and starts off by lulling you into a false sense of security with a slow, death march style riff that makes you think its going to be a quite chilled out end to the album. No, it goes off at break neck pace with a female vocal very reminiscent of the rifle prayer from Full Metal Jacket, then kicks in to an almost Aggrotech sounding verse section.Once you think you have an idea how the song is going to sound it flips on you again and kicks into a great clubby chorus section, featuring female vocals that really complimented the angry distorted vocals of Drago. Overall a very strong finish to the album.

Emergency Alert System is an awesomely energetic debut album from the Milano pair. It is a very well produced and highly polished album, Incorporating a wide rage of influences and paying homage to acts such as Angerfist and Deathstars, however let down ever so slightly by one track. I look forward to seeing a lot more from WormZ, this album should be requisite listening for any Hardstyle DJ and I would recommend this album to anyone who likes their music hard, fast and dirty. In the words of the boys themselves "Fuck your fake style!" Harshstyle is where it's at and WormZ are bringing it in spades. Jul 16 2013