REVIEW: Worm Shepherd – The Sleeping Sun [EP/2023]
Artist: Worm Shepherd
Album: The Sleeping Sun EP
More than many of the bands that are their peers, Worm Shepherd excel at casting a gloomy, dismal atmosphere that enshrouds their otherwise blistering brand of blackened deathcore. Shadows lurch and creep from every corner—every breakdown is tinted with melancholy, every riff and groove guided by a symphony fueled by desiccated misery. They make music that feels as though its come from a land void of sunlight—where vitamin D deficiency is par, and seasonal depression covers…well, every season. Hence The Sleeping Sun, a five track (but over thirty minute) foray into the land of the lightless. Worm Shepherd bring forth relentless aggression laced in melody, symphony and scathing technicality, refining their approach to blackened deathcore down to a razor’s edge, minimizing the fluff and superfluousness that often accompanies the subgenere in order to bring the listener a poignant and powerful experience that resounds throughout the waves of homogeneity cluttering this very nuanced style of music.
“The Frozen Lake Pt. II” opens The Sleeping Sun in glorious fashion, as an epic seven-plus minute that sets the tone for the remainder of the EP. Here, ballistic percussion dominates, roaring at mach speeds before lurching to a screeching, devastating halt to turn the listener on their sides with a devastating breakdown. “The Dying Heavens” expands on this, toggling back and forth between bloodshot aggression and tedious, unsettling atmosphere with marvelous efficiency, using the percussion as a firmament for dense, smothering fretwork and sinister ambiance. In this fashion Worm Shepherd prove their proficiency with the riff, expertly laying down lacerating leads that carve their way through flesh and bone into the listener’s brain (“The Broken Earth” contains some choice cuts, pun intended), but they also do not hesitate to let loose a heaping helping of heaviness. “The Frozen Lake Pt. II” has perhaps the best standalone example of this, with a blow-burning build-up that leads to an absolutely devastating breakdown—one where the vocals put in extra work, serving just as much as an additional instrument as they do a vector for vicious, pulverizing lyrics. The Sleeping Sun is a breeding ground for this type of dynamic intensity, with passages that push a more technical and intricate agenda that just so happen to segue into spine-shattering slam-tinted sessions of sheer oppression.
As it might have been hinted at earlier, if it isn’t the tight instrumentation, dialectic writing and marvelous production that sells you on what Worm Shepherd have cooked up, it will undoubtedly be the band’s vocal element. Those familiar with the band’s back catalogue are well familiar with the range and energy they’re capable of bringing to the table—however The Sleeping Sun exceeds in refining a core aspect of the group’s vocal element which was previously lacking; annunciation. Now even the rapid-fire segments with quick candor sound clear and crisp, resonating alongside bewilderingly heavy musicianship. “The Frozen Lake Pt. II” is my own favorite example of this, with a vocal segment that is reminiscent of King Jiggywiggy from Banjo Tooie (but, like, in a good way) that builds into the song’s climactic breakdown—while “The Dying Heavens” is nothing more than a masterclass of diversity. The band’s refinement in their vocal approach puts them on par with many of the other heavy hitters throughout the genre’s notable (and crowded) hall of fame, and certainly stands to only improve from here.
Of the newer bands making blackened deathcore, I would strongly argue Worm Shepherd is really the only one (or one of very few) worth actively checking out. They take the essential aspects of the genre and expand upon them without relying on tropes or corny gimmicks, instead only peddling sincerely detailed and devastating metallic mastery. While the EP clocks in on the longer end (which I guess isn’t too long given the genre’s tendency for longer overall tracks), it remains focused and entertaining with remarkably little fat to be cut. In short, The Sleeping Sun is the gloomy, guttural, blistering renovation the genre needed, exactly when it needed it.
9/10
For Fans Of: Lorna Shore, Make Them Suffer’s Neverbloom, Cold Soul
By: Connor Welsh
