2003: A Wormed Oddysey
Spain, once
the land of conquistadores, now the fatherland of another adventurous ones
called misleadingly Wormed. But for them our planet is not enough and it’s time
to raise the head. Yep, this is going to be a trip straight to the galaxies. And
believe me that whole musical offer is out of this world definitely. But
despite the final mark, it wasn’t love at first sight. What’s more, the
production way forced me to put it back on the shelf and cover by some
Nightwish stuff. Luckily “Planisphaerium“ devoured Finnish pride unmercifully,
yet the sound of drums is still an element that disappoints me a lot. I mean,
snare drums sound really awful: cartoon-like and seem like recorded beyond the
Wormed spacecraft. Just take a listen to “Tunnel of Ions” (1:20), the beginning
of “Voxel Mitosis” and “Ylem”, or the title one at 2:25 and we have got few glaring
examples.
Anyway, it
had to incubate. I didn’t know when but it has finally given me its succulent
most precious fruit: the music that extinguished my poor senses. Seemingly they
don’t deliver any new formula to this such hermetic genre and it is quite easy
to put them next to early form of Cryptopsy, however something has been mutated
during the mitosis process. It determined the overall final impression of
“Planisphaerium”: it refers mostly to perceptible dehumanized aura yet it has
nothing with soulless stupid robots. It means, as compared to Canadians, Wormed
go further in exploring such sounds. What’s more, the music became sicker,
completely brutal and broken, for any untrained ear – absolutely not to swallow
and digest. This album is simply uneasy, nervy, tumultuous. Like a surface of
an asteroid. Yes, all the cosmic comparisons aren’t anything strange in the
case of Wormed, because Wormed is a gift from the space itself. Just give a try
to the lyrics with no gore or even not Christ slaying poetry. You know, it’s
cosmos thing. And for sure Phlegeton has few books with astrophysics and
astronomy topics. Yes, there’s no gaining it: the vocal parts are superb and were
the first element I started to worship this album. Try to imagine lower sounds
than Antti Boman and “Nespithe”. Try to imagine the fuss in Phlegeton’s
organism before any rehearsal or live performance. Try to imagine Phlegeton’s
poor trachea peeping “Dear God, another song is coming…”. Yes, all the vocal
devastations are just added value to the whole hoisting it to the great level. If
you love it, you’re with them. Like me. There’s no another option.
It’s not a
long stuff but with enough minutes to give me a proper dose of cosmic madness.
Since the first second it ties the senses down, dazes, then masticates
furiously. Yep, it is technical and brutal if anybody needs such an adjectival
description. “Planisphaerium” is a some kind of monolith, like in sir Clarke’s Odyssey, it’s mightful, yet it demands
the attention all the time. Granted, first two, maybe three spins didn’t
convince me, and I considered the songs not to be varied enough. But believe
me, what a misleading impression! Now, after detailed analyses and taking the
album to pieces, I adore it almost boundlessly. For sure it is impossible to
choose the leader among the songs. And in spite of mentioned drums sound, I
swallow it with pleasure. Well, the drummer Andrés, he is a real beast behind
his drum-kit: his performance is completely unpredictable, from fast tempo to
frantic blasts, from broken crushing slowdowns through d-beats to jazz-breaks. Luckily
the second part of rhythm section isn’t worse, not only because it has been
recorded perfectly. Just listen to these shows in the title song or “Pulses in
Rhombus Forms”, especially during slows or slams. Riffs serve a real kaleidoscope
of forms, we have speeds of light and slow-downs (with one minute lasting slam
in “Ylem”) and many killing parades between them. Javier doesn’t bring any
whiles of relaxation, maybe catchier fragments in second part of “Voxel
Mitosis” (from 3:20) or lighter ones in “Pulses in Rhombus Forms”. In addition
some atmospheric short moment with clean vocals in “Geodesic Dome” or direct
musical references to Cryptopsy (“Ylem”, “Geodesic Dome”).
There’s no anything
neutral during meeting with Wormed first album for me. Always I am engorged by
this bestial dimension to be finally wormedized. The offer is a first step in
their astrophysical journey, though another two albums “Exodromos” and the
newest “Krighsu” are with better sound realization fortunately. My re-edition
from 2005 contains some bonus tracks as well, but it is rather redundant (promo
track “Voxel Mitosis” from 2001 with horrible dry production)curiosity (tracks 10-14
taken from “Floating Cadaver in the Monochrome” demo) and I do not take it into
account at all while contemplating about the final mark. And to judge it fairly
there is only one way, because musically and vocally it is just a splendid
title. I realize it has been given completely subjectively as “Planisphaerium”
is great example of love it or hate it
album. Anyway, definitely one of the best items coming from the land of Spain.
And two
more things on the end: forget about Nightwish titles in my collection and do
not let Phlegeton dehydrate our poor planet. The vision without water (and
alcohol!) is pretty terrific, don’t you think?
94/100
-Tlacaxipehualiztli
(written in December / January 2017)
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