Arise From Worms - A Bleeding Tree Hanging Self Destruction
According to official sources the formation of Arise From Worms happened on the "The 2019 USA Sickness" tour that saw Morbid Angel, Incantation, and Watain sharing the stage for a month-long trek across North America. Erie, Pennsylvania-based guitarist Sonny Lombardozzi was one of the integral members facilitating Incantation's creative rejuvenation and conceptual reinvention with bass guitarist/lyricist Chuck Sherwood and fellow guitarist Alexander Bouks. He had toured with Incantation from 2002 to 2004 before making his return as a studio musician on 2014's "Dirges of Elysium". When Bouks left to join New York genre institution Immolation in 2016 Lombardozzi once again appeared as a studio musician on the 2017 follow-up "Profane Nexus” before being promoted to full membership on "Sect of Vile Divinities" some three years later. It was on the “Profane Nexus” campaign that Incantation lead guitarist Sonny Lombardozzi and Morbid Angel frontman Steve Tucker forged an alliance to assemble a studio project. Lombardozzi pulled in Florent Mounier from Québécois storm of steel Cryptopsy to effectuate the Arise From Worms trifecta. In 2022 the first result of said studio union materialized in the form of a concise 4 track, 13-minute EP. Now, four years later, Arise From Worms returns bearing a complete album.
To be entirely frank, we weren’t instantly sold on Arise From Worms the way we instantly clicked with Malefic Throne. It took us some time to warm up to said EP, but eventually we did come to embrace it wholeheartedly. On the EP Lombardozzi went for a more free-form design in an attempt to unshackle himself from the narrow format, restrictive boundaries, and more rigid structures of conventional death metal. “A Bleeding Tree Hanging Self Destruction” expands that approach into album format allowing Lombardozzi to showcase what he’s truly capable of. He single-handedly elevated the trio of Incantation albums he appeared on with his dazzling, inhumanly technical leads/solos that not only showcased his progressive proclivities and finely-honed finesse, but also a carefully curated sense of melody. Understandaby, the centrepiece in each cut are Lombardozzi’s extensive soaring and truly spectacular guitar lead and solo sections, but he’s just as dexterous on the bass guitar laying down some incredibly flowing, popping, funky licks. Here Steve Tucker merely lends his monstrous roar. The Warfather had the good fortune of working with some of the best drummers in the death metal scene: Pedro "Pete" Sandoval, John Longstreth, Tomasz Pilasiewicz, Scott Fuller, and here, monsieur Mounier. Whereas the EP had former Nile vocalist/guitarist Dallas Toler-Wade contributing as a guest here its former Dream Theater and sometime Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai keyboardist Derek Sherinian.
The beauty of the more free-form approach is not that not every second needs to be filled and wide open spaces are allowed. Untethered from the conventional verse-chorus structure Arise From Worms is free to go in any direction they choose, whether it’s liberal noodling and Watchtower alike showboating. Opener ‘Forgotten Kings’ is a pretty representative for the album in that there’s an entire midsection where Lombardozzi and Mounier can go completely off the hook. ‘Power Obsessed’ is brief in comparison but in under three minutes there’s still plenty of goodness to be had. Most of the second act is free of vocals allowing the instrumentalists to fully explore their ideas. ‘Raize Demons Breath’ is structurally similar to ‘Power Obsessed’ but its ideas are far better developed whereas the former felt a bit incomplete here and there. ‘Psionic Being’ is the most epic of the tryptich and the slower pace greatly contrasts the fast shredding sections. It makes you wonder what Lombardozzi could do if he was paired up and duelled with Trey Azagthoth.
As for Derek Sherinian, well, he mostly tends to stay out of Lombardozzi’s way and strictly provides what amounts to decorative enhancements on the periphery. In all honesty, we’d love to hear the two men interact more and fully implement the keyboards into the songs. Now they feel like more of an afterthought rather than an active and integral part of the composition. In that capacity their application is slightly reminiscent of “The Key” by Nocturnus. Likewise would the inclusion of actual Sino folk instruments (guqin, pipa, konghou, erhu or any wind instrument) greatly enhance the intended ancient Chinese atmosphere that the instrumentals ‘Nine Walls’ and ‘Laolongtou’ seem to call for. The album is concluded with a redundant reprise of the two-part, 10-minute ‘Axes of the Voivode’ suite.
The general direction bears some slight semblance to long-suffering ineffable German savants Pavor (or the true forefather of Teutonic technical death metal, pre-dating Necrophagist and Obscura by a number of years) and if Lombardozzi chooses to fully implement Sherinian and his keyboards Arise From Worms might very well be the American counterpart to once-untouchable Theory In Practice in their their classic three-album run from 1997 to 2002. Some of the more straightforward conventional material occasionally is reminiscent of Gorguts circa “From Wisdom to Hate”. With a name like Arise From Worms there are bound to be certain expectations. Although the name harkens to the g(l)ory days of Cryptopsy Daniel Greening had no hand in this. Judging from the monochrome artwork and songtitles “A Bleeding Tree Hanging Self Destruction” either concerns ancient Chinese (military) history and mythology or Pathfinder, a Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) derivate fantasy role-playing game (RPG) video game series – or, more likely, both. ‘Nine Walls’ refers to the Nine-Dragon Wall or Nine-Dragon Screen with reliefs of Chinese dragons found in imperial chambers and gardens. ‘Laolongtou’ is a popular tourist attraction of the Shanhai Pass as well as an important part of the miliary defense system of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall. Here’s hoping Lombardozzi will further explore ancient Chinese culture and history.
Unless any viable reports to the contrary Morbid Angel should be considered a dead godform and Steve Tucker has been keeping busy with Malefic Throne whereas Florent Mounier was able to squeeze in these recordings in between the international touring obligations for “An Insatiable Violence”. No wonder Tucker and Mounier were excited to work with somebody like Lombardozzi. The 2022 EP was more progressive in scope, far more technically advanced, and actively forward-thinking than anything and everything Morbid Angel and Cryptopsy have done in the past vicennial. This album only takes all of that further. Musicians will probably appreciate this album even more for its construction around advanced musical theory and clinical approach while laymen like us simply love the sheer spectacle of it all. Mounier delivers some of his finest work that apparently no longer can find a home in his Cryptopsy and Tucker sounds as ominous as ever. The presence of ever prolific studio musician Derek Sherinian sounds like, and hopefully is, a promise of potentially greater things to come. Imagine what Arise From Worms can conjure once Lombardozzi, Mounier, and Tucker have grown even more acclimated and attuned to each other as a power unit.
