Wormhole – Almost Human
Release Date: 22nd September 2023
Label: Season of Mist
Bandcamp
Genre: Tech-Slam, Dissonant Death Metal.
FFO: Artificial Brain, Dysrhythmia, Atoll, Organectomy, Pestilectomy, All of the “ectomies”.
Review By: Eric Wilt
I have a confession to make. I wasn’t a fan of Wormhole until recently. By all rights, I should have been, considering I love both technical death metal and slam, and they created and coined the term tech-slam to describe the musical direction of their previous releases, but for some reason, it just didn’t click with me. Then a few months ago Wormhole released the single System Erase, and I instantly loved it. When their second single, Elysiism, came out, I immediately wrote Metal Epidemic and asked to review the full length when it was available. In just a few days, the album, Almost Human, will be available everywhere quality music is sold, and I have a feeling that I will not be the only person it wins over.
As soon as album opener, System Erase, kicks in, it’s obvious that something has been added to the Wormhole equation. Something that has lifted their music to a new level. The secret ingredient? Dissonance. While there is a slamming section in the song, the opening track is more dissonant death metal than anything, and it is awesome. Elysiism is up next, and it is equally dissonant but also filled with ground-shaking slams. It also contains a slick solo that isn’t overly technical but serves the song well. After setting the tone for their new direction with the first two tracks, Wormhole gets away from the dissonance for a song on Spine Shatter High-Velocity Impact. The fact that the song isn’t dissonant, and it’s still really great, leads me to believe that Wormhole’s songwriting is just better overall.
Throughout the rest of the album, Wormhole finds a nice balance between their old sound and their new. I love the addition of dissonance to their music, but it does create one problem. What will they call their music now? The title track features a woman saying the word tech-slam in the middle of it. I personally feel like they missed an opportunity to get the new term out there at that point, but maybe I can do it for them now. Perhaps we can call their music disso-tech-slam. Or maybe it should be tech-slamanance. Either way, one thing is for sure, whatever you call it, Almost Human kicks ass.
(4 / 5)
