Zyklon - World OV Worms
Candlelight
Black Metal
8 songs (41:19)
Release year: 2001
Zyklon, Candlelight
Reviewed by Aaron
Archive review

Zyklon is known for being the final destination of sorts for estranged Emperor musicians Samoth (now Zamoth, will be referred to as this throughout the review) of the insane wall-of-noise guitar riffing and Trym of the basically perfect drum skills that enable him to do anything. This fellow, I believe, could drum for a band like Hypocrisy or Vader with one arm and eat a seven-course-dinner with the other without messing up either in any significant manner. No offense to everyone, but with the possible exception of Hellhammer, Trym is the greatest drummer to ever curse our unworthy earth. Period.

On to Zyklon. I looked at this as a natural evolution of Zamoth and Ihsahn’s old side-project, Zyklon-B. Not only do they practically share names, but they share musical concepts as well: fucking brutal black metal with crazy-ass vocals provided by a maniac with a minimum of keyboards backing everything up, all dedicated to creating scary, evil music that can cause you to have a heart attack. You should not listen to World OV Worms (what a great name) if you have recently had heart surgery or live inside a glass house. You will regret it.

All others, let’s dive in! The production is clear and deliberately organic- I suppose it was supposed to lend to the atmosphere of hate and destruction that they wanted to convey. If so, the more power to them. It works. The production itself reminds me of IX Equilibrium’s production, which was awesomely clear and roomy in its own right.

See, here’s the innate problem with Zyklon- no matter how wonderfully excellent their releases are (and this is really great, trust me), whenever I put them on, I keep thinking ‘Emperor Emperor Emperor’ in one form or another. It’s inevitable, and I wish I could stop doing it, but Zyklon just feels too much like Emperor, even if the whole feel is going for something entirely different, for me to not do that. So, if it bothers you, ignore the constant Emperor references and comparison. Besides, I do that in all my other reviews anyway.

World OV Worms is obviously an attempt to go back to the primitive, rawer forms of black metal and ‘modernize’ it without weakening it, using slick as hell production and sensible men behind the machines that create the music. It’s accomplished. This is what black metal should have evolved into, instead of that weak-sauce goth crap that somehow got blended into it. (Here’s lookin’ at you, Cradle of Filth.)

This music is aggressive, driving, powerful, riff-heavy, and somehow retains the spirit and essence of religion-hating black metal. Chalk it up to Daemon’s utterly sick vocals: the man sounds like a church-choir quality soprano screaming at the top of his lungs. The resulting effect is not quite like any black metal vocalist I have heard before, and I love it. Sounds great.

The riffing? It’s Zamoth. In order to understand this record in its entirety without my really having to explain much do this in your mind: take all six hundred riffing ideas he crammed into Curse You All Men!, separate them, and elaborate upon each one for an hour apiece. Then throw fifty or so into the food processor at a time, and puree until finely mixed. Serve with the aforementioned brilliant drumwork of the inhuman Trym. Near the end, stir in oddly philosophic lyrics penned by the infamous Faust whilst in prison, who tackles subjects from the mindset of a death cult leader, to hating religion, to criticizing religion, and Norse gods killing each other. Makes seven songs, not one of which is possible to criticize much. Only real complaint I have is the length: It should be much, much, longer, so that I may revel in its glory that much longer.

Buy and enjoy.

Killing Songs :
All, with the possible exception of Deduced to Overkill, which would be better if it was longer
Aaron quoted 93 / 100
Daniel quoted 91 / 100
Other albums by Zyklon that we have reviewed:
Zyklon - Disintegrate reviewed by Kayla and quoted 92 / 100
Zyklon - Aeon reviewed by Alex and quoted 90 / 100
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