Endseeker – Global Worming
Release Date: 27th October 2023
Label: Metal Blade Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, OSDM.
FFO: Fuming Mouth, Entombed A.D., Paganizer, Immolation.
Review By: Andy Spoon
One of my favorite Swedish-style death metal acts of the last several years has been Endseeker, so it’s safe to say that I’ve been excited to spin the most recent release from the German death metal quintet, Global Worming, a 9-track LP that is set to be released on Metal Blade records on October 27th. Personally, I was very impressed with Mount Carcass, my very first foray into the band’s discography. As a result, I’ve been hoping to see what else Endseeker has planned for their fans in 2023.
The “Swedish” death metal chainsaw guitars are one of the ultimate tonal effects that Endseeker has employed from the get-go. There is no question that Global Worming wasn’t going to be an album where the band intended to change styles up. They stuck to their main tonal repertoire, which is actually extremely-satisfying. While many artists had later dodged the sounds which made them attain notoriety, it’s easy to tell that Endseeker wasn’t necessarily wanting to switch up the traditional Swedish sound a la Immolation, Paganizer, etc. This was clearly the right decision, as it didn’t take longer than a minute through track one for me to grin sheepishly as I sat back and anticipated 8 more classic Endseeker performances.
A classic tonal quality of the album (and generally for bands in the same circles as Endseeker) is that they don’t often resort to insane blast beats to convey the extremity of the music. This is something that allows listeners to get into more of a “groove” than to simply be waylaid by a never-ending rhythmic deluge. The drum section maintains its old school sound, not necessarily “needing” to rely on ridiculous riffing to impress. If anything, it allows the music to be enjoyed more holistically, something that gives a specific musical life to the whole offering.
While some fans of the purest Swedish death metal won’t be impressed with the pacing of some of the tracks, I think that the tonal cadence and the musical range of the album tend to show a mature and pensive look at the band’s post-covid experience, as they tended to experiment with some of the sounds which would manifest on Global Worming. For instance, track 2, “Hell Is Here” is absolutely something that could be considered a “single”, something that deviates from prior Endseeker tracks in pacing, slowing the beat down, and adding a memorable hook.
I was slightly conflicted about that slower, hook-filled style of track, but I had to look honestly and think about what I had thought before when I heard the guitars and drums, thinking “Oh yeah, this is absolutely Endseeker.” Having variation across an album is actually worthwhile, a thing that music reviewers tend to forget, as albums need to be enjoyed as a whole, not as a mixtape of the nastiest tracks that a band wrote since their last album.
One of the things that I found was an excellent factor of Global Worming was the clear similarity to another act that released a dynamite album last year, Bloodbath. If you loved Survival of the Sickest, I think that there are chopped-up moments of that exact style peppered-into multiple tracks. I absolutely loved to experience that, as infrequent as it might have been. I feel like this album was generally something that tended towards the mainstream, as if Bloodbath spent time working on memorable hooks and choruses, something that I sometimes wondered about while listening to Survival of the Sickest.
One of the things which got under my skin a little bit was the fact that almost every song on the album is in the same key, something that I had no problem overlooking. However, it’s something that I noticed. When your hallmark or signature sound depends on a specific guitar setup, we generally expect the nastiest riffs to be at the bottom of the neck, leaving only a couple of options for keys. I feel like I would have wanted a little more variation, but that’s something that I find doesn’t really detract from the album at all, as it never tends to get repetitive in that specific
I found that it was generally as heavy as, if not, heavier than Mount Carcass, which I thought was a great album. As a follow-up to the acclaimed Mount Carcass, Endseeker’s Global Worming did not disappoint, as the formula was maintained and elaborated-on in a 9-track offering that is both aggressive and fun for fans of the Northern European death metal sound.
(4 / 5)
