Hailing from Spain and to date producing just one full length in their ten-year existence, five-piece Wormed hit new boundaries with 2003’s Planisphaerium. In just twenty-five minutes of chaos, the band manage more than their peers do with twice as long, punching the listener in the gut with a pure Death Metal blow that’s sure to do a considerable amount of internal damage. The first few listens, you’ll enjoy Planisphaerium, but you won’t see quite what makes it stand out from the many other releases of the genre. And then it clicks, and you’ll be stunned...

From the blurred production that gives the guitars their gutwrenching depth to the vocals that redefine sick, there is nothing about Wormed that is restrained or weak. Everything is one hundred percent designed to completely and utterly annihilate the listener, yet there are more than enough of those technical trills and frills that bands take on to avoid accusations of becoming boring. You could describe Wormed as being similar to Demilich and Gorguts in terms of pure grimy power, or Cryptopsy and Gorod in terms of technicality and twistedness, and in both cases you’d be right. Add to this some crushing breakdowns that go nowhere near Hardcore and a sense of songwriting that stops tracks being too repetitive, and the stage is set for what may well be the best example of Death Metal in the last ten years.

Everything that first attracted you to Death Metal – the speed, the brutality, the heaviness, that satisfying crunch of the guitars, those evil growls – is present and correct, and at its most refined. Although, as mentioned, songs do have differences, such as the mid-point Jazzy breakdown in Geodesic Dome, and Voxel Mitosis with its None So Vile-esque sturm und drang, overall it’ll take quite a few listens before the twists and turns on Planisphaerium stop being as alien and mind-bogglingly vast an experience as astronauts feel when staring out into space. Have no fear, it’s just as exciting a trip with none of the danger, and one that every Death Metaller should take if he considers himself worthy of that name. Beginners might get sucked out into the vacuum, but experienced travellers will be flying by the seats of their pants and loving it.