After a stellar couple years with Inherits the Void, French solo artist Antoine Scholtès has returned with a new project in Wurmian, another solo venture that eschews the melodic black metal of his primary artistic vehicle in favor of melodic death/doom inspired by well-known acts of the ’90s. Immemorial Shrine is both a great debut and logical next step for Scholtès that demonstrates the versatility of his song and riff-writing abilities — even if the overall sound is a bit stripped back — as well as his continued knack for bridging past and present.
If The Impending Fall of the Stars and Scars of Yesteryears — the second and third releases from Inherits the Void — have had the pleasure of gracing your ears, the arrival of Wurmian should come as no surprise to you. In between the spacey atmospheric sections and furious trem picking on Fall of the Stars there were clear moments of crushing melodic death metal grooves; moments expanded upon even further on Scars, with the death metal riffing integrated more deeply into the DNA of that album. Closer “The Endless Glow of Twilight” was very prescient for where Antoine Scholtès would go moving forward with a slower, doom-inspired section and a galloping riff that was atypical for that project. Right from Immemorial Shrine opener “Aeon Afterglows” the sound of Wurmian will be very familiar to Inherits the Void fans in the choices of chord progressions and harmonized leads (even if the black metal is completely gone). Where before were blast beats and trem picking is riffs rooted in palm muted chugs and much slower overall tempos that present a highly melancholic atmosphere, aided in particular by clean guitar breaks and lush synth when appropriate; yet moments of technicality like the background tapping in “Haven” and “Yearning Unseen” pierce through the doom and gloom with brief moments of light.
Cited as Wurmian’s primary influences are ’90s acts like Amorphis, Edge of Sanity, and the early works of Katatonia and In Flames; I’ll admit that I skipped over a lot of these in my extreme metal education, but like Majesties there’s just something about melodic death metal nostalgia that actually clicks with me when it comes from a musician I really like. What I can say for certain is that Scholtès continues his penchant for linear, well-written songs that continuously transform in riff and tempo, never staying very repetitive — chunky death metal one minute, melancholic doom the next, each connected with massive chords and brief melodic flourishes (“The Everflowing Stream”). In comparison to the Dan Swanö production of Scars of Yesteryears last year the self-mixing job on Immemorial Shrine — mastered by Simón Da Silva (Vertebra Atlantis, Cosmic Putrefaction) — feels much more stripped back in comparison, but this just adds to the gloomy atmosphere and allows for the listener to focus on individual elements more easily.
This first step into a new world proves once again the many strengths of Antoine Scholtès as a songwriter and performer, showcasing his ability to craft earworm riffs and leads even in a setting entirely removed from the black metal that has typified recent releases. Whether an old head fan of the ’90s greats or a newcomer looking for an alternate to the big chorus melodic “death” metal that has taken center stage of the genre for far too long, I have no doubts about the merits of whether Wurmian and Immemorial Shrine deserve a spot within the genre as it stands today.
— Colin
Immemorial Shrine is available now. For more information on Wurmian, check out their Facebook and Instagram pages.
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