Kicking it since 1999, Spain’s best and most brutal band Wormed, have had their fair share of ups and downs.  After several high profile demos, the band released Planisphærium in 2003.  To say this album was phenomenal is an understatement.  I did not find out about this gem of a band until after this album was released for several years.  I read a review on Teufel’s Tomb and was like, I gotta get this.  Wormed had some shifts in members and it was not until 2010 that they were back with an ep; Quasineutrality.  The band would then get picked up by Willowtip Records and saw the bands back catalog reissued and remastered, before 2013 hit with Wormed’s long overdue and quite exceptional, Exodromos.

I was fortunate to catch the band live on an incredible tour with Cognitive and Condemned.  I hung out with the band and had a real good time with them and finding out Phlegeton and the gang were Internal Bleeding fans was a bonus.  Exodromos was so outstanding, garnering many new fans and their tour stints in the US, no doubt got them some much needed promotion, seeing the band getting picked up in 2015, by Season of Mist.  Here we are with Krighsu, more intense sci-fi inspired brutal and outlandish death metal, with a once again eye-catching album cover.  So how does this album fair, with respect to past Wormed albums?  Read on, young Skywalker, to find out….

“Pseudo-Horizon” comes blasting through, after a short atmospheric opener, with some devastating drums and a monstrous killer guttural growl from Phlegeton.  Sure the old school Cryptopsy influences are still there, but Wormed still has their own original sound.  Monstrous blasts erupting all over the place.  The 2.19 killer off-kilter drumming and then double bass pounds before a slam groove hits and you’re picking up houses and tossing them across the country.  “A-Life Omega Point”, is also outstanding.  Incredible opening before going into a heavy groove, then back into a blast and then old-school vintage fast death/thrashing beat.  This song, well they all do, but this one has some fabulous drumming and yes the 1.15 mark is the Holy Shit part.  Isolated slow killer guitar riff, before going into a monstrous blast that gets into Originesque territory.  Killer cymbal hits at the 1.50 part and then some dreamlike spacey guitar melodies at like the 2.15 part.  With more gurgling, bellowing going on, this tune rips from beginning to end.

Krighsu ends with the close to 7 minute, “Molecular Winds”.  High speed blasting begins before the killer slow part, but that does not last too long, before erupting into more ultra-brutality and then returning to the slower, heavier part.  The 1.07 part goes into an Ulcerate type of dark rhythmic blasting moment, that is truly spectacular.  Incredible drumming and the drum rolls and double bass are incredible.  The song alternates between space dream-like atmosphere, ultra- brutality blasting, killer grooves and just plain awe-inspiring muscianship, before bleeding out into an outro.  Just like Wormed’s last album, they add a little bit of coldness to their music, that at times, perhaps, has a bit of an industrial feel to certain musical/rhythmic patterns.  This is another highlight in originality that allows Wormed to further stand out from other bands in this genre.

The great thing about Wormed, is the band captures this sound live.  When I saw them, as I stood in the front, I was mesmerized at how tight they were and how they sound even more intense live.  Yes, Wormed have returned in a big freaking way.  May even be my top pick by the end of the year, depending how the Defeated Sanity hits me.  Wormed are one of the best brutal death metal bands out there.  I now place them in the upper tier.  I predict 2016 will see the band exploding and get on some major tours, by 2017.  This album wipes the floor with the majority of the bands out there.  And don’t even get me started on the song “Computronium Pulsar Nanarchy”.  One of the best tunes Wormed has churned out.  Krighsu is incredibly produced and I will wait to crown this their finest, but it is certainly their best produced and strongest song writing yet….Boy it sure sounds like it’s my favorite Wormed album…. Anyway;  Buy or Die multiple horrible deaths!!!!!

 

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