Worm – Gloomlord (Soul-Sloughing Doom)

 

You know you’re in for something different with this cover; it’s one of those that makes your eyes wander for hours until the details wrap around your head and constrict. Worm avoid all popularity. Their presence is thin at most and hidden in Internet fog, and more importantly their music’s a miasma that oozes more dread in less time than probably every funeral doom album ever released, but yet it’s not funeral doom. It’s something else. And I’m not entirely sure how to explain what that something is. Just don’t underestimate the existential soul-sloughing here and ignore my weakness.

   

Gloomlord has a way of entrenching itself in its own deviation. Worm make the usual doom drag seem like it’s actually moving with riffs that are downtrodden but like a specter in mist. Hidden, yet visible, relying on lightness as opposed to the easy path of crush. Part of their edge comes from Worm’s usage of a more blackened delivery with vocals that sound clotted, but also a surprising amount of acoustic work, which adds a touch of subtlety. Florida’s metal scene has been known for bizarre spurts of innovation, and Worm is another one to place in the eventual multi-volume history about it, perhaps as the most notable doom act to stay out of the sun. Gloomlord is delicately massive and horridly reserved. A pleasing treat for thee that grieve.

 

Worm is Beyond Your Facebook

Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls

Worm –  Gloomlord
Iron Bonehead Productions
Cover Art: Yuri Kahan (Prevailing Darkness Designs)
4.4 / 5