Album Review: Arise From Worms – A Bleeding Tree Hanging Self Destruction

Album Review: Arise From Worms – A Bleeding Tree Hanging Self Destruction

Reviewed by Eric Clifford

One of my favourite tech death albums is Nocturnus’ “Thresholds” release – which is one of those releases that seems to divide opinion, but it’s brand of thrashy death combined with relentless shredding and sci-fi themes still scratches the elastic, noodly itch for me every time. And I think my fondness for it goes some way to explaining why I’m having such a fun time with Arise from Worms here as well. I don’t know if any of the members involved here ever heard “Thresholds”, but if not it must somehow have crept into their subconsciousness regardless, because “A Bleeding Tree Hanging Self Destruction” feels like the rebirth of “Thresholds”, and I’m here for it every step of the way.

The lineup alone should see you salivating: Canadian drumkit warlock Flo Mounier (Cryptopsy), 50-fingered shred god Sonny Lombardozzi (Incantation, Fleshtized), mouthpiece for Sumerian demonkind Steve Tucker (Morbid Angel), and Derek Sherinian – who given that he’s played keys with Dream Theater, Malmsteen, and Steve Vai it’s safe to say that he too has the type of inhuman chops you typically have to barter at least your own soul for. In extreme metal terms, this is a Justice League tier lineup, and I’ll listen to anything each of these individuals has been part of. As you’d expect, the level of musicianship alone is damn near flawless, with each member holding more talent in a skin tag than most of us could boast of in the entirety of our being. But that only matters if it’s deployed well – I doubt any of us would struggle to come up with examples of technically gifted folk releasing bafflingly terrible material over the years. So. How are the band’s actual songs?

I’ve got my quibbles to be sure, but on the whole there is some amazing stuff here, and those of you who like tech or progressive death metal will likely struggle to reach the replay button over the vast, throbbing erections you’ll be nursing as a result of it. It’s gravid with agile performances, guitars, drums and keys unified in this kaleidoscope of speed and precision with examples being so frequent that it’s barely worth singling out specific ones because every one of the songs is overflowing with potential choices. I think the highlight for me is the 2-part “Axes of the Viovode”, it’s moody, crepuscular introduction melting away into an actively mutating thrash riff that spider-crawls through a mirror-hall of time signature and tempo switches, sudden jazzy flourishes, and one or the other of Sonny or Flo going fucking nuts on their instruments. The guitar wankery is just sublime – from about 1.13 onwards, part two is concerned only with shredding your face to the bone with an absurdly fast solo that crashes back into more of the band’s Dark Angel on Disco Biscuits death/thrash madness. It’s so fucking cool.

The promo sheet makes a point of outlining Sonny’s usage of less familiar scales, and while I’m in no way musically educated enough to converse of the relative merits of one scale vs another, I can at least say that the work here is definitely more outre than could be expected of the rest of us who are still fumbling our way through basic pentatonic runs. When he isn’t flying around Satan’s blues arpeggios, the band are in restless pursuit of other ways to keep things interesting. “Psionic Being” sees Steve Tucker’s baronic yell blast out at gale force over a meter and tempo that seems actively allergic to staying still too long, sections flowing into and around each other like squid jiu jitsu, all with the grace and confidence you only get from people who REALLY know what they’re doing.

But it does have missteps nonetheless. The keys, courtesy of Derek Sherinian, add a real proggy edge to tracks like “Forgotten Kings”, boosting that Nocturnus vibe that had me so enraptured. But the keys aren’t uniform throughout and I did miss their presence on otherwise excellent songs which could have been even better had the ivories been tinkled a bit more venomously within them as well. By far though the biggest detraction is “Laolongtou”, which seems to be a vocal-free instrumental version of “Forgotten Kings”. Besides being a bit bewildering (why would you ever want LESS Steve Tucker?) it’s stacked next to “Nine Walls”…which is also an instrumental (a 6.37 minute long one at that. And also one with a really neat sci-fi keyboard sting towards the end, since we’re on the subject). So basically, “Laolongtou” is a worse version of a track on the same album, immediately following after a song which renders it doubly redundant. In terms of bad choices, it’s up there with asking a cannibal for a blowjob. It’s also sat roughly in the midsection of the album, so it also assists with snapping the album’s momentum in half. I don’t know why the band did any of this, but as and when a follow up surfaces, I humbly but fervently entreat them not to do it again.

In a nutshell, this is a triumphant debut full length, albeit not one without it’s share of frustrations. The meat of the album is stupendous, and with a lineup this capable the sky is basically the limit in terms of what they can accomplish. I’ll be watching Arise from Worms like a hawk – not least to make sure that they don’t wait til Steve is off having a cigarette to stuff the same song back on the album without him on it – and I recommend that you do likewise, first and foremost by grabbing this the second it drops on us come the 10th July ’26.

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