Hailing from Canada, specifically Vancouver in British Columbia, Wormwitch are a 3 piece band who lay down the blackness, and they lay it down thick and filthy. Initially, with their 4th self-titled full length, I was not expecting the absolute barrage of sound and fury that my ears received. Marduk came to mind immediately in comparison with relentless aggression mixed with melody.
The first track ‘Fugitive Serpent’ comes out of hell’s gates thundering with blast beats, before switching to some killer machine gun double bass work, and all the “OUGHS!” a metalhead could ever need. Even the vocals have a certain raspiness and filth that reminds me of Mortuus of Marduk. The melodic riffing and tremolo picking are certainly fuel for the war machine. The second track ‘Envenomed’ switches up the onslaught with some D-beat verse sections before heading into slower parts with a wall of sound of guitars and distorted bass that are a great fit to the overall feel of the record. It doesn’t switch that pummeling aggression for long though, as the end of the track falls back to the bombast of blast beat battery. A very pleasing to the ears acoustic intro on ‘Inner War’ was a nice break from the war machine briefly before pick scraped guitars move back into firing range with melody and aggression simultaneously. That song specifically was an album highlight.
This is a high quality album with a great production that is dirty and mean sounding but very polished and every instrument is crisp and clear in the mix. Wormwitch are a killer band that this writer would recommend highly for fans of bands like Marduk, Watain, Dissection, and even countrymates Spectral Wound, with the occasional Disfear melodic D-beat part twisted in for good measure.
With 9 songs in 42 minutes, Wormwitch gets in, demolishes all in their way, and then stomps over their bones. A crushing album all around.
