Review Summary: Dissonant, savage riffs and ugly roars that encroach all like a swarm of locusts.
Entomophobia is a monolithic EP, one with such commanding presence that it mocks all those who are taken aback by just how absolutely savage it is. When on their bandcamp, however, it's much easier to mock them, proclaiming themselves as "shredding insectile death", yet the music does everything to apprehend that. The music is decrepit, perhaps moderately unsettling even. Think perhaps a tech death version of Deathspell Omega. Of course, stating that either band is exactly like the other would be entirely unfair, yet both have a similar atmosphere. It's all very dissonant, cold and replete with feeling of anger and despair. However, it is here the comparisons end.
Boreworm never exactly becomes melodic, but they allow for qualms of serenity to serve as transmissions between two segments of crushing power. This is especially present in the segway between "Esoteric" and "Vile Husk", with some rather disquieting guitar from the end of "Esoteric" leading into some sewer-level guttural chugs that would make bands like Black Tongue re-evaluate their whole existence. If you ever begin thinking the beastly sound of this album is tamed, Boreworm comes back in to kick you in the face and bluntly state it is not.
With all of this talk about savage riffs and brutal chugs, it would be wrong to not bring up the drums. They are primal and catastrophic, another cog in this monstrosity of a machine. They don't necessarily swallow the guitar or bass either, in spite of their ever foreboding presence. Everything is mixed so that the album works in equal layers, allowing for the album to complete a maximum level of bludgeoning sound without muddling any of the instruments together. They work separately and yet they are cohesive as one, with all of this building into the EPs closer "Entomophobia".
To conclude, if you dig dizzying riffs and unrestrained havoc this is certainly your cup of tea. However Boreworm is too heavy for tea, so if you aren't chugging goats blood from beer kegs, then perhaps it's time to start listening to Wham! in your glittering spandex, because Boreworm has no time for cowards. They are ugly, technical and abrasive, taking the listener into a harrowing abyss of inscrutable madness.
