Spain’s Wormed has been around for over 25 years – wow how time really flies into a space vortex!!!  The band takes their time with releasing albums and other than a 2019 stop-gap EP Metaportal, which I reviewed, Omegon has taken eight years to come out since the scorching Krighsu.

Omegon is Wormed’s fourth album and I look at their releases as extremely special.  They are one of my favorite brutal death metal bands who really have captured that space/science fiction formulaic style excellently.  9 songs in 41 minutes, sees Wormed expand on their sound, progressing with their longest album and longest song, the title track, which ends the album.

“Automaton Virtulague” has those usual Wormed space opening noises, right before the bludgeoning blasts and Phlegeton’s putrid vocals are in excellent form.  The song blasts and smashes and check out the signature time changes around the 1.20 marker.  Discordant, groovy and then right into a slower section with complex rhythms.  The signature Wormed blast ruptures eardrums again then back into the groove, then back into the double pounding blast.  Quite an album opener – loving this so far!!

“Pareidolia Robotica” starts with a robust mid-paced sound, with stop-and-start moments. It’s not quite djent sounding, but not too far removed from that style either.  The song gets going with a blast and amazing vocals, once again and insane drumming.  This song showcases the band expanding on their already complex sound as they cascade towards a galaxy, far far away.  There are some gravity blast moments as well, getting into some old-school Origin moments.  Very interesting and well-thought out song.

“Virtual Teratogenesis” begins with some off-kilter drumming and overall this yet another complex song.  Whereas some of Wormed’s prior efforts may have caused the listener to pay close attention to many of the rhythms and swirling song structures, Omegon, will test your limits at times.  Make no mistake this is still Wormed to the proverbial T, however, due to the increased shift in complexity, some of the memorable parts of Wormed are sacrificed.  Regardless, that ethereal blasting and style at the 3-minute moment, on this track, is in fact vintage Wormed and even with some Fallujah like elements, this song is terrific.  At over 7 minutes the title track ends the album with a very atmospheric and slow burn buildup with soft music and space sounds.  That lasts pretty damn short as the ferocious non-linear blasting erupts and explodes chest cavities.  The killer groove early on will create havoc in pits and the blasting about halfway through the song is so tight and on point it will pierce your cheek like an icepick.  The song slowly teeters towards the end, just as it began, and the ethereal atmospheric trancelike moments continue until the song truly ends.

Omegon is an outstanding album, from Wormed.  Yes this sucker will test your listening limits, because the band has incorporated progressive and even more off-kilter/discordant elements into their repertoire.  This does sacrifice the memorable factor during certain songs, however I keep going back to this album, because I discover new sounds each time.

To me, that is a winner of an album, and most importantly I like those new elements.  Production-wise, this has a very clean sound and crisp, which is important when it comes to recording complex space vortex brutal death metal.  This is quite the banger of an album!!

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