Wormed‘s rebirth is planned for 2024.
Formed in 1998 in Spain, the band got off to a slow start, then faced the death of their drummer in 2018. This year, under the aegis of Season of Mist, who have been with them for several years now, Phlegeton (vocals, Altarage, Lifelost, Human Mincer), Guillemoth (bass, Human Mincer), Migueloud (guitar, Human Mincer, ex-Cancer), V-Kazar (drums, Bizarre, Cancer, ex-Aposento) and D-Kazar (guitar) fire up Omegon, their fourth album.
Automaton Virtulague begins with a cybernetic introduction, before letting the musicians unleash all the violence they’re capable of in a jerky, complex rhythm section. Old-school sounds are present, notably in the vocals and drums, but the guitars adopt more dissonant patterns, as on Pareidolia Robotica, where the musicians’ extreme technicality is apparent at various paces, notably on the devastating explosions. A few effects are added at times to the vocals, but the band also emphasizes waves of fury before Protogod takes its place to bury us under its infernal rhythm from which a few heavy leads and breaks occasionally emerge. The sound disappears into nothingness, then is replaced by Pleoverse Omninertia and its more ethereal Progressive Death accents, quickly overwhelmed by raw power, under-tuning and other stifling palm-mutes before Malignant Nexus offers us a moment of what sounds most like respite for a few moments, before the drums return to reinforce the interlude. We then move on to Virtual Teratogenesis, which returns to thick but well-crafted riffs, notably with the overexcited drummer who doesn’t hesitate to spread all his talent while remaining precise, before Aetheric Transdimensionalization strikes and sends all its intensity right into our faces, not without a number of rhythmic changes. The spacey final leads us into Gravitational Servo Matrix, where the bludgeoning resumes alternating with the hazy lightness, finally joining and corrupting it before leaving us with Omegon, the eponymous track, and its seven-and-a-half minutes of meticulous devastation where double kick, samples, devastating guitars and screams meet and collaborate to leave us in a black hole.
Wormed offers us a powerful album this year, marking their return with a rock in the face. Omegon doesn’t hesitate to dip into the chaos of Progressive Death to support its violence, but it does it well.
90/100
