This is the third album from international death metal band Wormhole.
I enjoyed 2015’s Genesis and 2020’s The Weakest Among Us, so was keen to find out what Almost Human offered. Back with a new lineup once again, Wormhole deliver 26 minutes of death metal carnage. It’s immediately clear too that Wormhole have levelled up on this new album.
Almost Human showcases an evolved Wormhole. Fully capable of tearing off faces with their blistering heaviness, Wormhole have now developed their darker, immersive side much more fully. Imagine a cross between bands like Analepsy and Vulvodynia on the one hand, and Artificial Brain and Ulcerate on the other. Yep, Wormhole have done some very good work on Almost Human.
A compelling mix of technical death metal and slam, Almost Human is designed to make you move, and move hard, but also to transport and absorb. Wormhole’s new music has a surprisingly emotive side to it that’s unusual for the style and makes the band stand out from the pack. This comes from the shades of dissonance and dark melodies that enhance the music’s killing capacity, adding an aspect of atmospheric depth to the songs that is very beneficial for Wormhole’s overall sound. One-dimensional slam/tech death this is not.
Wormhole combine slithering technicality and crushing brutality into short songs that pack a lot into their brief durations. The music explores a terrifying cosmic starscape, while providing enough heaviness and aggression to flatten the unwary. Despite this though, the defining feature of Almost Human is its ability to make the listener feel what’s going on. Yes, this might be bone-jarringly brutal many places, but frequently in a lot of others it’s the impressive soundscapes that Wormhole craft with consummate skill that stand out.
The results of the latest version of Wormhole are impressive. Almost Human offers a lot more than albums with the slam tag usually do. Wormhole’s latest is an apex predator.
Very highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 