25/03/2022
OUT NOW: SS 017 CROWN OF WORMS "SORCERY RITES"
From the very beginning of this album, I knew I was in for another dark journey with Crown of Worms. Full disclosure, I came into this as a Crown of Worms fan. Not only is their music the exact kind of rock-throwing thrash-spurting black metal I enjoy, but their last full-length "Impalers March" was a favorite of mine when it came out.
Obviously I'm going to gravitate toward a dark, dirty heavy metal band that sounds like this. "Impalers March" featured a song called "Bitchslappin' (The Holy W***e)" which 100% helped push them to the top of the heap. It was a good marriage of over-the-top Satanic wackiness and actually good heavy metal.
The new album "Sorcery Rites" is exactly what it says: sorcery rites. The band digs up Bathory and Hellhammer but regurgitates them through the mouth of a possessed bulldog. Imagine if Hellhammer was exposed to the same amount of gamma rays the Incredible Hulk got exposed to. I mean, holy s**t. There's alot more anger in Crown of Worms than was in early black metal, and you can hear it seething off the top like the steam rolling off the top of fresh roadkill. It's that pungent and offensive. I imagine if Crown of Worms was say, a dead rabbit, it'd be one that was full of maggots baking in the sun. It's that kind of anger in the vocals. The guitar work sounds like irradiated snakes slithering around in a keg of beer; the bass sounds like a dilapidated bulldozer, along with the steamrolling drums... still running, still old, still crushing everything in its path. The old days returning again.
The entire album has a beautiful live, raw, 80s cassette sound to it; medium rare. Not so raw that an idiot couldn't enjoy it, but not overproduced enough that an idiot would think it's the best thing ever. It's the kind of s**t I like. Black metal devoid of idiots.
This album is more powerful than the last one and I will go out on a limb here and say this album is more powerful than all 5,000+ metal albums that came out last year, and the (surely) 2,000+ that have come out this year already. Crown of Worms don't really take any prisoners, but they have one anyway: Me. I'm a prisoner of the rock n' roll contained within their recordings, and the prison they built is exactly the cage people like me enjoy.
I guess the best way to describe the sound of "Sorcery Rites" is this. Wizards resurrect the co**se of Marilyn Monroe, who immediately begins killing and fu***ng everything in sight. This powerful Marilyn zombie stalks about like any other zombie but with purpose: to find and resurrect Jayne Mansfield in order to take her head as an oracle. After ripping the half-demolished skull out from the tomb, zombie Marilyn brings the world a new prophecy.
A prophecy in which there is no future for humanity except fire. Fire blazing all over the Earth until there is nothing left. Upon learning this Marilyn decides to go back to the crypt, still carrying the head, cradling it like a baby. This album gets a 1000/10.
-Aleister Goldbang
