ARISE FROM WORMS – A Bleeding Tree Hanging Self Destruction

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6.5

• Bands:
  ARISE FROM WORMS
• Duration: 00:36:19
• Available from: 10/07/2026
• Label:

• Church Road Records

Project for the exclusive use of all lovers of ultra-technical American death metal, which responds to the name of Arise From The Worms and which is now released with the first full-length entitled “A Bleeding Tree Hanging Self Destruction” for the English label Church Road Records.
The band, born during the Covid-19 pandemic, is made up of well-known names from the stars and stripes scene with the vocals entrusted to ex Morbid Angel, Steve Tucker, while the guitar and bass parts are handled by ex Incantation, Sonny Lombardozzi, accompanied on drums by Flo Mounier of Cryptopsy and Derek Sherinian (ex Dream Theater) on keyboards.

Therefore, a stellar line-up that releases a work of nine tracks, for a full half hour of virtuosic death metal, in which guitars and drums aim without mincing words at technical excellence, but which also stands out for a very successful use of keyboards, often opposed in this genre.
“A Bleeding Tree Hanging Self Destruction” follows the 2022 EP of the same name and the style has remained the same, that is, a super intricate death metal which in the long run can become a truly challenging listen to assimilate for those who are not musicians or for those who are not looking for the display of exasperated technicalities. The structure of the songs can in fact become a cumbersome puzzle of engineering precision that is quite difficult to assimilate for those unfamiliar with string instruments, particularly due to the repetitiveness of the continuous tempo changes, which leave absolutely no room for linearity.
Lombardozzi, who is a music teacher by profession, performs in a tangle of scales, sweep picking, shredding, classical and neoclassical solos, which by the American multi-instrumentalist's own admission are inspired by his jazz studies and the compositions of Niccolò Paganini. The mathematical style of the guitar lines blends perfectly with the tightrope walking behind the skins of Mounier, a name that certainly needs no introduction, being an absolute guru of extreme drumming of the last thirty years.

Another guarantee is Tucker's growling, which in a complex and bombastic album of this type is not a main element, but remains more in the background, as a sort of instrument capable of acting as a glue between the musical labyrinths constructed by drums and guitar. In this sense, there is no shortage of entirely instrumental pieces such as “Nine Walls” and “Laolongtou”.
However, the voice rises in intensity and comes to the fore in the more aggressive parts of the tracks more oriented towards brutal death, particularly in “Raize Demons Breath”, “Power Obsessed”, “Psionic Being” and in the double of “Axes Of The Viovode”.
Finally, Sherinian's keyboards do not disturb and are well inserted into the context, which do not move on futuristic and space territories as in the legendary Nocturnus, but are structured on a more markedly progressive and jazz design. Grand finale entrusted to the overdose of guitar, bass and violins of “Persepolis”.

In light of the musicians involved, those expecting an album of simple brutal death in American style may be disappointed, because here the objective is exclusively to raise the technical bar as much as possible. Having said that, for those who have a trained ear, the average running time of four minutes per piece guarantees the album the advantage of not being excessively monotonous, a problem that this type of production often falls into.
If, however, you are looking for death metal without byzantineness or are allergic to productions with excessively artificial and glossy sounds, getting to the end of “A Bleeding Tree Hanging Self Destruction” can be a truly tortuous path and, even after numerous listens, the risk of finding yourself thrown into a very intricate pinball machine or video game of cerebral hyper-virtuosity is very high.
Without wishing to disrespect artists gifted with such technique, Aris From The Worms' proposal seems to convince only from a strictly executive point of view and, perhaps, a slightly more linear approach to the compositions could help the band to be more accessible to the general public, provided that Lombardozzi and his associates are really interested in obtaining greater catchiness, which is not so obvious.
The right path could be to give more vent to the purely brutal death metal veins, partially decreasing the exasperated display of instrumental skills.