### Wormed: Exodromos

#### 02/04/13 || The Duff

Anybody in the brutal death metal world will know of Wormed’s sci-fi conceptual masterpiece “Planisphaerium”. That album was released way back some ten years ago, and since the band has retired, reformed and signed to Willowtip, making everyone’s penis very hard because Tipton, owner of the label, knows his death metal like a good pair of socks.

The two-track E.P. that followed, “Quasineutrality”, was very well received, the quality of the tracks keeping even the most finicky of fans well contented. And then news of a full-length came, and honestly, after hearing the first two tracks posted earlier this year, namely “Nucleon” and “The Nonlocality Trilemma”, I felt like the first time I listened to “Introitus” off Defeated Sanity’s “Chapters of Repugnance” – the future of death metal was imminent, March 26th 2013 (or one month earlier thanks to piracy).

In hearing the full album, I can say that this is indeed one of the greats, as with “Planisphaerium”, taking simple riffs, absurdly complex musicianship and crushing arrangements to new plateaus. “Exodromos” tastes better than nipples (I speak of course of a man’s nipples and not of a woman’s which as we all know are heavenly-delicious, like chocolate-coated raindrops with less hair).

So “Exodromos” is once more a conceptual piece, ten tracks and prequel to “Planisphaerium” about Krighsu, the last remaining human being of the cosmos, and something about alien life-cycles and travelling through space to spread the human seed BUT NOT IN THE WAY THAT WE IMAGINE but I bet still with orgasms and semen (and possibly a bit of intercourse with aliens)!

Lyrically therefore you’ll know exactly what to expect – stars n’ shit. The music boasts a new drummer for the band (and new guitarist, I think), and a much glossier production (mastering handled by Mika Jussila, who has been known to work with Children of Bodom and Nightwish, so some big bucks if I’m not wrong). Where “Planisphaerium” was thick, sickly and suffocating, this is clear, crisp and yet just as heavy as its predecessor.

As per usual, we have the Cryptopsy influence, both old and new, but I have to smile some that new Wormed and new Cryptopsy are matching note for note in places, considering that tracks off both the latter’s self-titled and “Exodromos” were potentially written about the same period (but that is merely speculation, whether they copied each other or not). Other influences are akin to Cephalic Carnage-grind, and then of course to none but Wormed themselves.

A lot of dark, menacing chords, tremolo riffs, chug breakdowns, unusual rhythms, and of course Phlegeton’s notorious, deep-throated vocals that sound like a barrel of oil in front of a microphone; the drums, although criticised for not being as inventive as on “Planispharium”, are tight, restrained where needed and a flurry of style elsewhere, all delivered with absolute gusto.

As for the tracks themselves, I have some issue with “Solar Neutrinos”. For a track that acts as a breather, they could have settled with “Darkflow Quadrivium” (these track-titles are giving me blueballs) alone and nine tracks total; that said, “Multivectorial Reionization” (the follow-up) is comparatively straightforward, far more spacious than any other track on the record, and so as two tracks that work as one, there is some value to having them back to back thereby producing something on an equally grand scale as the 5+ minute closer “Xenoverse Discharger”, which although not at all the busiest of tracks, closes the album with about as breathtaking a scope as the preceding nine cuts combined – it is a magnificent finish to ten tracks that are each brilliant individually, but work far better as one complete masterwork, moreso than with “Planisphaerium” (this being a prequel, some of the riffs off said album also feature to great, welcoming effect).

This so far is death metal album of the year for me; the songwriting is uber-slick, unlike the new Defeated Sanity which is of a dirtier ilk, but also just seems fresher, more engaging than “Passages into Deformity”. Of course we still have Ulcerate and Gorguts to come in 2013, and I think once the novelty value has worn off, “Exodromos” will not have raised the bar as much as it appears to have done right now.

That said, compositionally the record is close to flawless, the music is exceptionally varied, and the band has evolved – this is a bold step forward in death metal, and a nearly perfect record but for the rarest moment of tedium.

- Information
- Released: 2013
- Label: Willowtip Records
- Website: Wormed MySpace
- Band
- Phlegeton: vocals
- J.Oliver: guitars
- Migeloud: guitars
- Guillemoth: bass
- Riky: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Nucleon
- 02. The Nonlocality Trilemma
- 03. Tautochrone
- 04. Solar Neutrinos
- 05. Multivectorial Reionization
- 06. Spacetime Ekleipsis Vorticity
- 07. Darkflow Quadrivium
- 08. Stellar Depopulation
- 09. Techkinox Wormhole
- 10. Xenoverse Discharger