(Here’s Wil Cifer’s first NCS review of the new year, and he has chosen to focus on the new album by the Floridian necromantic black doom band Worm, which is set for release on February 13th by Century Media.)
Be the change you want to see in the world. I want to hear more of doom’s despair injected into black metal, so I am going to write about blackened doom. In particular, the band Worm.
Two songs into the new album Necropalace and it’s clear that they have grown as songwriters. Refining what they do with a larger-than-life dynamic range to the dramatic swells of guitars, it pretty much sounds the way the album cover looks, music for vampires ruling a cosmic portal in Dungeons and Dragons.
Photo By Doomvana
Black metal is the dominant force when it come how the two genres are fused, with doom being the lingering doubt lurking in the mind of the anti-hero galloping through these grim stories. Or at least what you assume to be grim stories, as the vocals, which are snarled in a growled rasp, are articulated but sit against the vocals until only a phrase here and there is discerned, so you might catch a line about darkness lasting forever or something being eternal, but that is not the main focus of the songwriting. The vocals are plotted out, and hit the right places amid the shifting riffage, but getting the message across is not part of the mission statement here.
The album’s strength lies in the role that the sweeping majesty of the guitar solos plays in adding to the song rather than just being a masturbatory centerpiece that holds little function. It is blanched out by songs like “Halls of Weeping,” where a dose of nuance gives greater purpose to the riffing that brings things to a more headbanging pulse.
At times this album feels creepier than what goes down on the new Mayhem record, though both had a dramatic cinematic tone that found them following Dimmu Borgir’s grandiose boot prints. Half the album is sprawling pieces that cross the ten-minute mark, but it manages to achieve a balance of hooky guitar melodies and always throws something at you for your ears to latch on to.
“The Night Has Fangs” simmers before being brought to a boil once the guitar heroics resume and some momentum is built. Low-croaked Cradle of Filth vocal passages begin to appear. The more melodic “Blackheart” is one of the album’s best songs in terms of songwriting. It borders on being progressive metal. Keyboards are more notable here as well, and throughout the album well used.
The album closes with the most sprawling track in “Witchmoon,” which features Marty Friedman. The guitar wizardry is levelled up to the point that when Friedman appears on the last song, there is nothing that jumps out and makes me say, “Oh, that is Marty Friedman”. In some ways, the more progressive moments of this album will appeal to Emperor fans.
This album is a high point for the band. It is going to appeal to black metal fans more than doom metallers, though most metal heads should be able to appreciate what is going on here. If you are a fan or like progressive black metal with darkly epic tendencies, then this album is for you.
https://worm.lnk.to/Necropalace-Album
https://wormgloom.bandcamp.com/album/necropalace-24-bit-hd-audio
https://www.instagram.com/wormgloom