Many years ago, when print media was still a thing, I read a review of Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time by Carlos Santana, where the master of latin rock covered a selection of classic rock…classics, for lack of a better word. The reviewers metaphor has stuck in my mind since: Imagine going to an upscale restaurant, ordering a three course meal and being served a series of varied, nuanced meals, only for a second waiter to arrive moments after the first and splattering ketchup all over whatever dish had just been placed in front of you. While I take issue with the metaphor’s chosen condiment – Santana´s guitar playing is certainly closer to Cholula than ketchup – there is truth to it. Taking different ideas and giving it the same treatment, again and again, has diminishing returns and takes away from the intended variety.
In today’s story, Phil Tougas is our Santana, our condiment wielding connoisseur of neoclassical wankery. Earlier this year, he got saucy with Exxûl’s Sealed into None, an epic doom affair with a wailing power metal vocalist at the helm – and Tougas’ usual wankery. Now, he´s juicing up Worm’s newest affair. Worm’s last album, Foreverglade, had been the band’s first truly cohesive and great release, earning a list spot from me that year. The band had focused on dialing up the grime, the death, the doom and finally committed to a sound. Necropalace sees Worm construct a gloomy palace made out of cheese, synths and Tougas‘ usual tartar sauce of neoclassical shred. The combination of a dungeon synth/black metal aesthetic with what is structurally a heavily indulgent death doom record, complete with shreddy solos and overlong songs, feels novel. Or like a novelty, rather, as I don´t think the aesthetic and structural choices come together to form anything greater than the sum of its parts. At the end of the day, you will have to ask yourself how much you like tartar sauce and if the plethora of shreddy soloing is worth it for you. Myself, I find them entertaining enough for a few spins, but can´t help but feel that Worm could have better focused their efforts elsewhere.
