Wurmian is a French Melodic Death Metal duo consisting of two die-hard fans of the genre – Specifically the early era of it, citing a strong desire to emulate the nineties albums of bands such as Katatonia, October Tide, Amorphis, Horrified and, partially, that of Edge Of Sanity and early In Flames (albeit with a modern twist).

Immemorial Shrine represents not only the first delve into the wider world for the band now known as Wurmian, bit also their first Full-length record, spanning thirty-nine minutes. And as for their stated goal, I would overall argue that they have succeeded, having grown up surrounded by nearly all of the above-mentioned bands – All the aggression, youthful anger and simple, repeating riffs from the Death Metal genre merged together with a more melodic, wavering approach causes the tracks to linger as well as give tracks such as ”Haven” an almost somber edge.

As for scaling it up to the more contemporary age, that is probably most noticeable in the very crisp mixing and mastering, with each of the track being almost crystal clear in their sound. Aside from that however, they have also seen it fit to slow down the pace of the tracks somewhat (especially when compared to some of the more aggressive In Flames tracks), instead pouring atmosphere, recognisable passages and a consistent, building soundscape into every individual track.

The end result? Probably the best Melodic Death Metal album I have heard in years, if not decades. It is consistently good throughout, yet with clear distinctions between songs with removes the necessity to hear them in order (granted, that is something I love about concept albums, but I am not going to fault Wurmian for choosing a different path that clearly works for them).

All in all, a strong recommendation from me – And I will admit to having already sent a link or two to some friends of mine; The same link that can be found below, coincidentally.

https://www.facebook.com/wurmian.band/