In its quest to become the world's most brutal, ugly and offensive death-metal act, a young band should ask itself three questions: "How fast can the drummer blast-beat?" "How many unspeakable acts can we cram into three minutes, lyrically speaking?" "Are the riffs-per-second an accurate measure of how brutal we truly are?" I'm only sort of kidding. These exercises in ridiculousness are par for the course, though their excess is not unrewarded. Enter Wormed.
Ten years after PlanisphÆrium, Wormed returns with Exodromos, a prequel of sorts to the Spanish band's space-themed debut. Never mind understanding the words to "The Nonlocality Trilemma" right now — you can't — but it's about an alien questioning his mission, according to a statement by the band:
"The Nonlocality Trilemma" talks about the escape of Krighsu from planet Earth. This is one of the tracks where Krighsu begins to question life and the worth of his mission. Their extremely technological spacecraft takes off quickly and breaks the barrier of space time through the interstellar medium in seconds, leaving the solar system forever. Krighsu is one of the main characters in the Wormed concept. He represents the consciousness of humanity in a futuristic and technological context. He carries the human seed, and he's the last hope of human life. The album in particular talks about the demise of the solar system and the universe in the year 8K. Krighsu is entrusted with the salvation of human life.
With swine-like growls and switchback riffs cutting razor-sharp corners like a Tron light cycle, "The Nonlocality Trilemma" is engineered to bludgeon you into multidimensional submission. The slamming breakdowns, squirmy melodies and honest-to-goodness (and surprising) Pantera-like grooves never last more than 10 to 30 seconds, yet for all its disorientation, there's something rational about the structure of it all. Built on the technical brutality of bands like Demilich and Suffocation, Wormed goes beyond: This music is alien, unknown. Here's hoping it won't take another 10 years before another interstellar communication.
Exodromos comes out March 26 on Willowtip Records.
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