Here is an album review that required much more thinking and introspection than I ever expected. How could I not elaborate on the quintessential qualities of one of my favorite albums of 2024, all genres considered? Usually, the reviews come to me very naturally. Several tracks will generally stand out of the lot but it’s not the case with WORMSAND, and I could not figure out on the spot where this or that riff I love actually came from, nor could I find out where this haunted backup vocals were sung. I could not for the life of me understand what in the songwriting was hitting the spot so well. It’s never too catchy and obvious yet never avant-garde or too intricate. I loved this album, I returned to it constantly, and yet I couldn’t put my finger on the “why”. So for a certain time, I lingered on external elements to recommend “You, The King” until finally, the truth appeared to me at the beginning of the year 2025. I therefore give you my revelation a few lines below.
The devil is in the details. First, there is this artwork, my favorite, all releases combined for the year 2024 and maybe even the two or three years prior. Iconic, mystical, neat, readable, simple, timeless, classy and with a colossal visual impact. An absolute success from Johrice.
Then there is the production. My ears have always been drawn to the more creative grains of saturation that certain albums offer. Of course with Wormsand, it’s all about the fuzz but the gain stages mingle in a massive sound that smacks of total collapse. Like on my favorite sludge albums, there is in this sound of guitars and bass (except on the clean parts) a form of urgency, of insecurity as if at any moment the amp was going to die and the incandescent wire of the tube slowly go out. The last remains of a riff lost in the distance. The bass is rounded but grainy every time it has to form unison with the guitar and, for a grungy doom album, the emphasis is particularly placed on the mids.
The vocals are subtly put in the background but without ever being drowned out. They also shine with their eclecticism between the almost guttural screams, the melodic lines leaning towards classic doom, the varied choirs and yet this never harms the extreme coherence of “You, the King”. On the percussion side, the drums are a production and writing delight. Never too forward, serving the songs without forgetting to have its moments of bravery, it is the very definition of what every musician dreams of as rhythmic support.
I could also talk for hours about the tracklisting and song construction. The album is like an organic being, realizing by itself when it is appropriate to slow down, to settle down or, on the contrary, to push the knobs back in the red. We never get bored and yet it is remarkably fluid to the point that one could almost believe in a happy accident but the recurrence of choices and their relevance leaves no doubt about the work provided and the attention brought to the songwriting.
Yet if we really have to talk about specific parts that marked me, there is this riff in full on noise rock mode with a totally unexpected killswitch trickery just before the end of the first minute of “Black Heaven”. There is this angry and so deep gojiresque singing on “Digging Deep”. There’s this damn fade out on the eponymous title which would usually make me lose my temper but, here, fills me with blissful satisfaction. There are the melancholic dissonances and the almost post-hardcore singing of “Drown” or the strangely uneasy interlude “The Crown”. There’s the solo on “The Final Drive”, so grunge, like a tribute to Alice In Chains. There is of course that intro riff to “Daydream” which, in just a few seconds, should convince anyone to listen to the album.
And with all that, I’m only scratching the surface. My revelation is that Wormsand is a mood as the young people say and this album is simply flawless. If it is so difficult for me to identify key elements, it is because each time I listen to it, I get completely lost in the album. It is an assertive musical proposition between post doom and post grunge and a visual universe so advanced that it directly propels the band well above the numerous doom formations which flourish all year round. Why do I like this album? Because I come away from each listen a little more amazed. Some may find that it lacks a little spontaneity and the energy that it brings, but I believe that the work put in and the quality of the band’s live performances are enough to silence all the criticism.
This album is simply majestic, massive and with only 37 minutes from start to finish, we listen to it again and again. Thank you Wormsand for demonstrating that work pays off, that working on details is important and that it is better to release an album of this caliber than to have a series of easy releases.
ARTIST: Wormsand
ALBUM: You, The King
LABEL: MRS Red Sound
RELEASED: 8th November 2024
GENRE: Doom metal / stoner metal
MORE: Bandcamp
Last modified: 29 January 2025
