Sometimes you hear an album, and it awakens something in you. It pulls you in with long, skeletal arms and shows you sights you never imagined. Cursed lands where Black Metal reigns supreme, and the sky is always overcast with storm clouds.

Allow me to introduce Wormgod, two insane Motherfuckers from Bucharest playing uncompromising Black Metal with the savage memories of the 90s scene and channeling Necrophobic in the best way possible, although that’s the tip, just the tip, of this nine-song iceberg.

This is an ice-cold piece of work, starting off with “My Blood” which has this smoking bastard of a midpoint that’s like a gut punch before it’s over. “The Blossom of Fear” is a slow burning serpent and it’s around this time that I start to pick up those influences that aren’t just Necrophobic, but so much more. Tracks like “Failure’s Reign” and “Icon of Sin” evoke Dark Funeral with some amazing guitarwork from Vladimir Toma added to Octav Necrosis’ inhuman vocals. There’s also “Olden Crusade” and “Amorphous Hate” two tracks that burn with the spirit of early Emperor. “Post-Self Apocalypse” is the album closer, an absolute fire and brimstone lava flow of destruction. The pace picks up at the three – minute mark and slows itself at four minutes to let the song breathe towards an epic as fuck ending. Jesus fucking Christ, 2023 is a good year for Metal already and we’re only nineteen days into it.

I namechecked a who’s who of heavy hitters and I stand by it. Necrophobic, early Emperor, sprinkle in some Darkthrone (especially the mid-riff in “My Blood”.) My point is that each of those bands had stellar debuts that stormed into the public’s consciousness, and this is where Wormgod are with Where Old Curses Rest. It’s a nasty album, one of those that you must play for your “I’ll listen to anything” friends; it’s fucking sickness, necro at it’s blackest finest and reminiscent of last years Ad Finem Omnia’s No Peace – No Dawn. That one made it onto my 2022 list and since I’m already looking ahead in my fevered brain, I can see Wormgod showing up. Hail Black Metal! Hail Wormgod!

 

[Visit the band's website]

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