EP REVIEW: EP1 – Lair Of The White Worm
While he’s best known as a live guitarist for grindcore legends NAPALM DEATH, and a founding member of CORRUPT MORAL ALTAR, John Cooke is now stretching out his horizons with his new project LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM. Taking the name from a 1988 horror movie of the same name, the project was born out of Cooke‘s inability to sit still whilst the pandemic rolled around the world. This was a man who lived and breathed music, and had spent the last ten years or so on the road. Working with his CORRUPT MORAL ALTAR bandmates Tom Dring and vocalist Chris Reese, the project makes its debut with a six-track EP entitled EP1.
Opener Virtu features guest vocals from Reese. This song is pure metal heaven, with roaring guitars, heart-thumping drums and even a quote from the 1973 horror film The Exorcist thrown in for good measure. It’s a catchy song which sets off a very good start to the EP – a streak of success which continues with Isolation. The unique thing about this EP is that it is mostly instrument heavy, and therefore does not have many vocals. When there are vocals, they are often from movies or news broadcasts. This does not affect the pacing of the EP, as no two songs sound the same.
Bankrupt Morality is a fast-paced song that shakes things up for the band as it is mostly vocal heavy – a welcome break from the instrument-heavy songs that came before it. The pacing of the EP is consistent, and the production makes the song sound really clear.
Into Ludes is the shortest song on the EP, at only two minutes long. Here, LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM strip things back a little with slowed down industrial metal. There’s no lyrics on this song. Despite the slow pace of the song, it feels natural after the intensity of the first three songs. It transitions neatly into Misery Box – a mid-tempo song which then slides into a slow and monotone voice that repeats “Too weird to live and too rare to die“. It’s an odd but endearing mixture of Bankrupt Morality and Into Ludes, but again the fantastic production ensures that it does not affect the pacing of the overall EP.
Waster is the final song on the EP, and it is similar in terms of structure to the previous song. It is a mixture of up-tempo and mid-tempo, full of movie quotes and distorted guitars, with the addition of some distorted vocals. It is a mess of a song in all the right ways; unnerving, calming, and unpredictable, just like life itself.
EP1 is a fantastic debut that marks LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM out as one of the most exciting new bands in metal. It’s perfect for fans of bands like PIGFACE, MEATHOOK and KILLING JOKE. The production is fantastic, the pacing is brilliant, and the unique movie quotes makes this band stand out in the best of ways. Cooke has established himself as a brilliant musician, but the release of this EP is just going to blow people away – a must-listen for fans of industrial metal.
Rating: 8/10
EP1 is set for release on October 15th via APF Records.
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