Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Avant Garde

Beauty in Wretchedness: PALACE OF WORMS & THOABATH Split 7″ Review + stream

Ahh, this is the kind of shit that should end up on a split 7″: two almost completely different bands – not more of the same, the space is limited, no one wants to hear more of the same. This is why this Palace of Worms / Thoabath split is so special, cause it reunited two friends instead of just two bands doing the same thing. Palace of Worm’s Balan (also in Botanist) and Thoabath’s Andy Way (also in Sutekh Hexen) are two incredible, talented, extremely established and well-respected Bay Area musicians, who also happen to go way back and their friendship has now lead to this great 7″ Split that just came out on King of the Monsters .

The first track – Palace of Worms‘ “She Who Holds The Fire” is a striking and abrasive blast of pure black metal ferocity that contains equal parts of cult Norwegian black metal heritage as well as more ambiguous modern black metal leanings that can be traced back to the more “American” side of things bringing to mind bands like Krieg, Draguar and Skagos. In this song, there are some pretty amazing and ripping solos by Balan and some incredibly furious and unrelenting rhythms that make up one the heaviest and most ferocity-driven Palace of Worms songs to ever see the light.

 

 

Side B of the split is Thoabath territory. With the track “Mirotheas,” Andy Way has shown us once again how he rejects melody and grace or any common form of “musicality” entirely, and how his only channel of expression and scope of interest in his musical output consists in the construction of absolutely scorching and skin-peeling sound sculpture made in equal parts of harsh noise, power electronics, industrial, black metal and weird forms of electro-dub and ambient soundscapes. There’s some pretty mind-numbing shit going on in this track, as Way’s vocals appear to be the demonic commentary to the collapse of a black mechanical star. Sutekh Hexen, of course, remains a clear starting point for Way’s vision (mainly in the vile abrasiveness and sheer cruelty of the sounds purveyed), but this is musical composition that goes well beyond, embracing far away concepts of really out there electronica taken from the likes of Scorn, Whitehouse, Throbbing Gristle, and the such.

 

 

There is endless pain herein, approach with caution and an open mind, the gratification will be sublime and endless.

 

palace of worms - thoabath split

 

 

Written By

DETESTATIO.

Relapse DF 92123
Sentient 51423

You May Also Like

Grindcore

I’m starting my week of right with a healthy dose of Malevich‘s experimental blackened grindcore. The eerie and intensely beautiful buzzing intro to their...

Avant Garde

If the name didn’t give it away, Cuntroaches are cut from a different cloth. This Berlin-based cadre of sonic terrorists constructs an extremely abrasive...

Electronic

Do you ever wonder what it would take to spark an actual rebellion in our greedy, placated nations? How many people living on the...

Black Metal

I wrote the below words in 2011, and over a decade later, this DISGUSTER record is still one of my all-time favorites!!! Revisit it...

Copyright © 2020 CVLT Nation.