Sometimes it takes a record to show up connections between genres. Maybe those links existed before but went unnoticed – and then this one record is published and exemplifies these bridges one had not heard before. WORM’s latest ‘EP’ titled Bluenothing is able to do just that – exemplify the connections between Funeral Doom and Prog Rock.

The title track is that eye-opening experience – the whole track is oozing proggish goodness and art rock-structures including some very singular guitar lines close to guitar solos but used here in a different context. Usually, a guitar solo is the moment for the guitarero to step up front and deliver his best shot for his own credentials. Here, on the title track of Bluenothing, it is quite the opposite: The guitar solo is used like another guitar line lifting the song from its Funeral Doom songwriting-base with subliminal choirs and keys into the realms of a Doomy version of Prog Metal. That solo comes at roughly 6:30 minutes and it surely is something to show why Prog and Funeral Doom work so well together as it runs for only 40 seconds and leads into the short pause before the slow-paced metal takes over alongside the really poignant keys. When the solo guitar returns it doesn’t stand out as much as before and is integrated into the sound even better. The last part of the track is a slowed-down Death Metal passage that combines all of the former and exemplifies what a giant leap the Floridians have made since their last EP, 2021’s Foreverglade. Bluenothing could and should be the eye-opener, the foot in the door and the point when people see how good this band is.

”Centuries of Ooze II”, the second track, is a miracle blend of choral work with Death-Doom-Metal using the choral and ecclesiastical elements as the basis for the whole track. Again, the guitar lines show the most proggish side of Funeral Doom. The fact that the first two tracks on this EP are leftovers from the Foreverglade-sessions makes the next two tracks stand out even more, because they surely show a significant change to their soundscape: the next two tracks are a bit like the X-Files-version of Symphonic Black Metal, with the instrumental third track ”Invoking the Dragonmoon” serving like a rollercoaster-intro to the epic finale ”Shadowside Kingdom”, which was also the only pre-released single of the EP.

This track definitely shows the passage from Proggish Funeral Doom to Symphonic Black Metal (think about genre-names!) very well, as it totally takes its time to build a lot of tension and expectations which are then already negated when the choral vocals (way back in the mix) are accompanied by yet another guitar solo laid out to transport the band, their music and our listening experience through the passage from one genre to the next. The arpeggios embedded in the tracks sure show that the band is now venturing into new territories with their sound and their songs.

If this is the end of the Foreverglade period of the band (also indicated by the very different artwork), then they surely show how to undergo such an endeavor with the utmost elegance, complexity and simplicity and a sure ear for the core of all these (related but still) very diverse genres. However though, maybe they don’t care about genres? Should we? Is this Symphonic Black or Proggish Funeral? Is it important for our experience of Bluenothing? No, not all. There are enough bridges and solos leading us from one side of the soundscape to the next. πάντα ῥεῖ . panta rhei. Everything flows and everything is connected.