WORM – FOREVERGLADE – Album Review

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Every metallic element that goes into Worm’s third album Foreverglade makes it one of the absolute best extreme metal releases of 2021. The album is steeped in funeral doom but it transcends the genre to include Floridian death metal, a bit of black metal and even some epic metal influences. It seems 20 Buck Spin can do no wrong these days and Worm are undoubtedly one of their finest bands on their roster.

Hailing from the swamps of Florida, Worm have tapped into the filth and muck encrusted sound of their home state’s death metal lineage and the band are also able to mix the putrid sound with some finesse and phenomenal melodic writing ability.

At times, Worm exhibits a bleak, psychedelic doom approach reminiscent of England’s prime purveyors of extreme psych funeral doom Esoteric, mixed with the melodicism of early Paradise Lost. At others, they’re as primordial as they come.

Surprisingly, Worm’s first two albums Evocation of the Black Marsh and Gloomlord were decent but unremarkable slabs of doom and were both on Iron Bonehead Productions. It wasn’t until 2021 that the trio managed to fuse their epic death/doom into a formation that sets them apart from the usual Floridian ilk on Foreverglade.

Chuck Shindler’s influence on the guitar solos is apparent, guitarist Nihilistic Manifesto plays some mind-bending leads while singer/guitarist/bassist and keyboardist Phantom Slaughter growls and screeches his way through Foreverglade, making the album even more varied and interesting.

Maybe the despair and isolation of the COVID-19 global lockdown had a positive and desperate influence on Worm’s acumen. Whatever the case, Worm has evolved from a grub into a fully-formed death’s-head moth of band! 10/10

Worm‘s Foreverglade was released on October 22nd, 2021 via 20 Buck Spin