Counting Worms began life as a simple interlude during Knocked Loose’s early, violent sets.
This 71-second song is not about a basic technique for measuring soil health, but rather slang for being quite deceased. It’s not a happy song by any stretch of the imagination, but when it was released in 2016 on their debut album Laugh Tracks, it became something of a viral hit.
The song features just 16 words and two noises a dog might make if the post arrives, or if a neighbour dares leave their own house. Vocalist Bryan Garris believed the feral sounds gave the song a sense of menace. Perfect, then, for whipping up a crowd into a frenzy.
“I feel like every decision that we make when it comes to writing is based off the live show,” Garris told Metal Hammer. “We have a setlist that is completely built around crowd participation, and where in our songs we can create moments in a live setting.”
“The bark was something that I thought sounded hard,” he later told podcaster Nik Nocturnal in 2024. “It was kind of just always an interlude live, and back in the day, I don’t know what it was about that song, but that was the scariest moment of our set. It became like this unspoken rule that when you heard the chirping everything was crazy.”
More often than not, things would take an ugly turn when it was time to play Counting Worms.
"The funny thing about that is that it has a pretty happy energy now, because people will put the song over their dog making a mess of something," guitarist Isaac Hale told former Stray from the Path drummer Craig Reynolds on his podcast, The Downbeat. "It’s such a joke now, but back in the day, when we started playing Counting Worms, it was the most terrifying part of our set."
Indeed, the song went viral and Garris' dog noises since have been incorporated into a SpongeBob SquarePants meme and featured across multiple TikTok posts, with yo-yo trickster Kremmet being a particular highlight. The song has also been co-opted, sliced and diced by the drum and bass community (American DJ Kayzo in particular).
"Half the time we show up to play a show or even a headline show, I’m assuming half these people just heard Counting Worms off of TikTok.
Isaac Hale
"Full disclosure: half the time we show up to play a show or even a headline show, I’m assuming half these people just heard Counting Worms off of TikTok or they heard the 'Gary' Mistakes like Fractures meme," shrugs Hale. "That’s a good percentage of why people come."
"When we were playing like 100-cap rooms, right, as soon as that kicked in, people were in danger, like people could die," Hale added during an interview with YouTuber Rob Scallon. "Now when we kick into Counting Worms, everyone’s like, 'Yay! Happy fun time!', like, 'Yeah, I saw a video of a dog running around to this,' whereas I used to see people getting knocked out.”
Its viral success – along with the band's formidable live reputation – opened doors, leading to shows with Every Time I Die and, later, Parkway Drive. Their status as headliners was grew rapidly, to the point they were joined by Terror and Jesus Piece during a North American run in support of their debut.
Almost a decade on, Counting Worms has lost none of its feral power, viral hit or not, and the band did not squander the opportunities it afforded them. In recent years, their profile has grown further; their song Suffocate earned a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance in 2025 and they were invited to support Metallica on their recent run of European shows.
