Style: Technical Death Metal, Slam (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Devourment, Gorguts
Review by: Zach
Country: Maryland, United States
Release date: September 22nd, 2023
In every man, there is an innate urge to return to monke. You want to swing from tree to tree, eat banana, not have a care in the world. It’s the simple life. But did you know there is actually a way to return to monke on command? It’s called slamming death metal. Just a mere second of toilet bowl vocals and disgustingly heavy guitar riffs turns on this part of your brain called the Caveman Cortex. In a study done by Subway’s Division of Psychological Warfare, led by yours truly, we’ve discovered that enough exposure to slam can physically devolve you. Trust me, we’ve tried every band. Devourment, Analepsy, Disentomb, you name it.
But this album gave our completely willing participants an odd response. Instead of screeching at the top of their lungs and throwing fecal matter, they collectively worked together to convert our study room into a carpeted den, complete with a fireplace. They were all gathered ‘round the fire, wearing velvet robes they sewed themselves, and they kept talking about how “exquisite” the riffage was, all while patiently picking from an elegantly made charcuterie board.
My conclusion? This is the album for the caveman that discovered fire. Wormhole have always been near the top of my slam favorites, especially as they’ve been slowly making their way into more proggy territory with each album. Almost Human shifts directions slightly from the tech-slam union that was The Weakest Among Us, adding clear influences from Ulcerate and Artificial Brain. The result is slam for the thinking man, an album to start a pit to, and then sip wine to.
Sanjay and Sanil Kumar have always been masters of the axe, but they take it to a whole new level with this. ‘System Erase’ begins with a sound that all my dissodeath lovers know well— a riff straight out of Infrared Horizon accompanied by the most disgusting toilet bowl vocals I’ve ever heard. Slam is primarily a guitar and vocal driven genre, but the whole band brings their A-game here. This is not the usual techy approach of 300 BPM for the whole song. Wormhole know when they need to start shredding, and when they need to slow things down for a mosh-worthy breakdown.
The sheer talent among the Kumar brothers is nothing to be understated. From spidery arpeggios to some disgusting, disturbed melodies, they cover so many grounds on this album. The overall brisk runtime adds so much replay factor to this record. There’s something innately fun about this record, despite it being dissonant and brutal. It helps that Wormhole do not take themselves seriously in the slightest, going along with their tradition of adding Spongebob samples into their songs, and having Siri say “Tech slam” on the title track.
This is more than the average slam album. Unlike their contemporaries, Afterbirth, who’ve moved into a more journey-like, prog-adjacent structure of musicality, Wormhole have kept things disgusting in the best way. That’s not to say they haven’t advanced, and this album is a big leap ahead from Weakest. They’ve catapulted themselves into my favorites with this effort, and they seem to be popular with the test subje—er, participants, too.
Recommended tracks: Elysiism, Data Fortress Orbital Stationary, Almost Human
You may also like: Ulcerate, Artificial Brain
Final verdict: 8.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Season of Mist – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Wormhole is:
– Sanil Kumar (guitar)
– Sanjay Kumar (guitars)
– Matt Tillett (drums
– Basil Chiasson (bass)
– Julian Kersey (vocals)
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