Worm Ouroboros - Come The Thaw

The first Worm Ouroboros album felt like a journey through lifeless and still seas. You don't quite know what happened, but something tragic really took place. This time around, 'Come The Thaw' feels like I have now been taken to the woods after it has just experienced its cruelest winter yet. Woods that are deserted of all life. A new tragedy.

Imagine the crawling bass is the final steps of the deer who is dying of hunger as the winter killed everything and left nothing to eat. Slowly giving up and taking its final breath. The splash of the cymbals being the final panting before curling over. The slow beats acting as the final thud to signal the tragic end. The repetitive bass line in 'Release Your Days' just showing the dead one laying alone in the woods but the repetition makes you stay and watch, hoping for some signs of life. The soft echoing guitar melodies that hover in only give way to lost hope.

These vocals are eerie, at least to me. Cold in a sense. As if they linger with this chilling mist that is sweeping through the woods slowly. The way they interact with the melodies is as if the mist has helped the last of the snow melt and calmly drip from the tree branches, it helps welcome the heavy change in 'When We Are Gold' which feels like the sun is peaking through the clouds and giving hope for life again in these woods, until the light fades away again to further prove that the bleak days are far from over, given the return of the chilling voice and dripping melodies.

Perhaps one may still have hope, but the way 'Withered' gets heavy says otherwise. It gets smothered by these emotionally sad and ringing leads and a throbbing bass. 'Penumbra' signifies that these are the woods of lost hope when a voice becomes more soothing but eventually distant. Each note silently drops and rings out with much space between them. As harmonies come in, the notes begin to form patterns with the crawling bass and deep toms, the dead deer slowly fades and disappears into the after life.

It is all very cruel. At least that is how Worm Ouroboros has painted it and this is a fine example of how you don't need to be heavy to represent despair. Perhaps a reminder that nature can also release its sense of wrath. Now that spring is here, put 'Come The Thaw' on and spare a thought for those that didn't make it through the winter.

Ikil