World Of Worms
‘Black Metal’ is a term often tossed around. Many bands have been referred to as playing ‘Black Metal’ music, but very few make it as extreme as Zyklon.
Zyklon sounds like some abomination that has been cast out of hell by Lucifer to go and plague the world with it’s apocalyptic lyrics and religion hating anger. In reality though, Zyklon was formed in Norway in 1998 when former ‘Emperor’ guitarist/bassist Zamoth (sometimes known as Samoth) decided to explore the more modern and aggressive sound of metal. Zyklon was solidified in 2000 when drummer Trym and guitarist/bassist Destructor were also added to the band.
Their debut album ‘World Of Worms’ was released in 2001 with singer (or more like howling monstrosity) Daemon handling the vocal parts.
Lyrics:
“Kill one man and you are a murderer, Kill a hundred men and you are a conqueror, kill all man and you are a god!”
Many quotes like this fill up the album’s booklet and seem to be the lyrical inspiration for the album. All of the lyrics seem to be centered round one subject … (drum roll) … that man is coming to an end! Scared? Well you should be. Even though the themes and ideas in the lyrics are very exaggerated and horrendously over the top, they do manage to make sense. Almost all the songs have very strange and complicated lyrics which, when dissected, do carry quite strong meanings.
In the track Storm Detonation the lyrics revolve around the thoughts of a cult leader and try to get in touch with the cult leader’s really aims, “What do you long for, doomsday or alienation?” This song along with several other tracks off the album, most notably Hammer Revelation, Deduced To Overkill and Chaos Deathcult, really show Zyklon’s views towards religion. In their opinion every religion is a cult striving for nothing but power.
Even though I don’t totally agree with their views I can see truth in what they are trying to explain. Today there are many problems in the world and almost all of them lead back to religion. All of the recent terrorist attacks and bombings from both the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ and middle eastern extremists (I’m not taking sides here) have been traced back to one thing, religious disputes and disagreements. Even though I wouldn’t personally verbally insult any god or religion I do see why Zyklon do so and respect them for putting across their own opinions.
“The earth has a skin and that skin has diseases, one of these diseases is called mankind”
Other tracks on the album explain the effects that humans are having on the world and how someday the world will inevitably end. Terrordome describes the power and destructive force humans have when their pride is questioned and mainly follows the events when the first atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima on August 6th 1945.
The song Zycloned explains the world in the future where humans will reproduce through test tubes, personalities and emotions can be taken in through swallowing different pills and the world will be one big human cloning facility with endless miles of dead grey corridors and rooms. Again, more over the top lyrics but never the less highlighting the extreme effects of technology and how it may one day bring the decline of mankind.
My favorite song on the album by far is the last and longest track Transcendental War – Battle Between Gods in which the lyrics are based upon ancient Norse gods.
Overall the lyrics on the album are very exaggerated and over the top but do raise some good points. Although they are rather pointless unless you actually have the lyrics sheet in front of you because in typical black metal style, the lyrics are howled and screamed so aggressively that no words are intelligible.
The Music:
To me, most of the guitar riffs on the album sound very similar. Almost all of them are tuned so low then the strings are probably hanging down between the guitarist’s legs and all are played at top speed so it’s hard to tell them all apart. The guitars in the songs are definitely played with a lot of skill but for me it’s hard to really get into it.
The bass on the album is practically inaudible for the duration of the album and when it is audible it is basically just following the same rhythm as the guitar.
The drums are very well played on the album. As with most metal bands the double bass pedal is played at top speed with the rest of the drums pounding away on top. This is definitely rather impressive and you have to be quite a talented drummer to do it but I have pretty much heard the same thing a million times before from any mediocre metal band so for me I don’t really find it that interesting.
Overall the instrumentation is fairly mediocre. As I mentioned before, they are definitely very skilled musicians but because of the top speed playing and the low tunings I find it very hard to actually tell the different songs apart from each other.
Album Standouts:
- Transcendental War – Battle Between Gods
Overall, a fairly average album. Pretty much what you would expect from most Scandinavian metal bands. The instruments are all played at top speed and sound extremely heavy, the vocals are viciously howled on every song (with the exception of Transcendental War – Battle Between Gods where at the end some clean vocals come in, shocking I know!) and the lyrics are epic but generally over the top. If you are into black metal then this may be a good buy for you but if you’re not really into the genre then this won’t be anything more than average.
