Around these parts, Florida’s Worm is a band we hold in high regard. Their last full length, Foreverglade, was in my top albums of last year, so to suffice it to say a lot of us were looking forward to their next one. Here it is in the form of a grindcore triple album, or what Worm is calling a mini album at 4 songs and 26 minutes.

In the first track, “Bluenothing,” their strengths are immediately on display. What I find so fascinating is their sense of dread. The clean picked guitars in the background, as well as the bells, mixed with some synths among the heavy riffs, deep bellowed vocals, and frantic drums pull this off incredibly once again. It’s a long track at over 11 minutes, but oozes pus from every single movement and layer. The section with about 4 minutes left sounds like Incantation’s take on a hopeful funeral song. Yeah, a hopeful funeral song, whatever the fuck that could possibly mean.

The next track is “Centuries of Ooze II.” The first part was the last song on Foreverglade. This is basically funeral doom, which isn’t a sub-genre that typically works for me, but Worm put upon it their own spin. Also, wait… clean vocals? Only briefly. The rest of the track, despite multiple excellent solo sections, is plodding, downtempo doom. Filthy, nasty doom.

With the third track being short and basically an interlude, that only leaves one, which is “Shadowside Kingdom.” The intro, which is a clean-picked guitar with some background, atmospheric synths/choral vocals. There are some clean vocals again, too. It’s mostly an atmospheric track until about 3 minutes in when the band decides to give you a blood eagle. There’s an unexpected black metal tremolo riff with one hell of a guitar solo section. The last section with its driving drums and soloing almost sounds like traditional metal, but those rasps will qualm any of those ideas.

I didn’t expect but am glad I was able to hear more material from this band in 2022. Although this is going to essentially be seen as a stopgap, it’s nothing to overlook and sufficiently whets my appetite for a hopefully soon incoming full length. I don’t normally rave about EPs because they always leave me wanting, but this one is rare in that it’s great on its own, worth the time, and also makes me want more. Well done.

[Visit the band's website]

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