Worsen
Blood 

Self-Released 2014

The putrescent blood that courses through the veins of North Carolina's Worsen is responsible for some of the coldest, most intense USBM in a very long time.  Their debut EP is four songs of pure blackness and freezing despair.  To say this EP hit me hard even on my first listen would be an understatement.  The chilling winds of Open Veins flow easily into blackened melodies that possess you with their mesmerizing blasts and entrancing rhythms.  The track drops into a melancholic midtempo set of riffs that almost have a New Wave style to them, but of course this is probably just my mind wandering across these infernal sonic fields.  An icy trudge across fields of snow is the visions that assail me as I am in the grip of Collect Their Skulls, Leave Their Bones.  A forlorn mood permeates the whole track thanks to some well placed guitar accents woven into the song's main structure.  This comes even more into focus as the pace quickens above a crawl.  Mortal Sin reverts to the stylistic equivilent of a blizzard, speedy gusts of frigid guitars.  Despite the speed of the drums, the riffs sway slowly creating an expansive feel to the sound.  It's like an endless wasteland of snow and darkness.  There is a sense of longing buried within those misanthropic melodic passages.  The title-track closes out this assault of traditional black metal in grand fashion.  A buzzing solitary guitar is soon married to a full barrage of instruments, a wall of organic terror that pours from the speakers like a mountain stream.  Unforgiving coldness and merciless movement is embodied within those infernal riffs.  The repetition becomes hypnotic until it collapses into ambient wind once again.  The Blood EP has imprinted Worsen's style on my nocturnal psyche.  This is music of darkness and wintery cold.   We are nothing!!!!!