Review by Sonny for Worm - Foreverglade (2021)

Since previous release, Gloomlord, the Floridian death doom duo have expanded into a trio by adding guitarist Nihilistic Manifesto to the lineup and beefing up their already impressively heavy ranks. For the recording of Foreverglade, they also brought in session drummer L. Dusk. Both new additions have had a positive effect on the band, the rhythm section feels more solid and has a greater depth to their foundations with L. Dusk's addition and NM certainly makes his presence known, especially with some atypical death doom soloing (check out the solo on Subaqueous Funeral) and a bit more of a gothic feel to the guitar sound.

The production sounds much better on this compared to Gloomlord too and I think the album benefits from a clearer sound without losing any of the filthiness that we have come to expect from the band. The riffs are super-downtuned, throbbing death doom chugs in the main that any fan of old-school death doom acts like Autopsy should be right at home with and the vocals have a bit of variety, utilising not only the usual deep growls derived from death metal, but also black metal shrieks which harks back to the band's earliest days when mainman Fantomslaughter ran the band as a black metal solo project.

The band have also developed their songwriting somewhat, with the centrepiece track being the eleven-minute epic Cloaked in Nightwinds which has several tonal shifts during it's runtime for a bit more of a progressive feel (it is still insanely heavy though) and Empire of the Necromancers strays into melodic black metal territory more than once and has a more airy atmosphere to it than the previous tracks, allowing a ray of light into this filth-strewn, foetid swamp. Closer, Centuries of Ooze, somehow combines ultra-heavy death doom with what sounds at times suspiciously like Wall of Voodoo's Mexican Radio for a strange but incredibly effective atmosphere.

So, on the evidence of this, Worm seem to have come on leaps and bounds in the twenty months since Gloomlord's release and if they continue to develop at this rate we will have a serious contender on our hands before long.