This album does not chronicle antics of a man who knows how to use his trouser snake, but tells tales from Frank Herbert's "Dune" universe. Sandbreaker are a Polish band who released their debut, the selftitled EP, last year. It was a promising, rather characteristic 15-minute journey, but man... Now you can hear they discovered some spice and got hooked on it...

'Worm Master' is a dark, ominous and intimidating experience. It is more like a musical equivalent to David Lynch's movie than anything else "Dune", even though it's packed with awesome comic artwork (gotta be beautiful as 12" vinyl sized).

Sandbreaker sound basically rather simplistic, but there's more depth into their sonics than it at first feels like. Sandbreaker reside somewhere in between heaviness and slow grooving. They aren't in hurry to get anywhere, but they aren't going in with stealth, because they are loud. There are riffs, at least a couple in each of the songs. However, it is the whole that really makes Sandbreaker shine. Rusty/earthy guitar tone is accompanied by clanking bass guitar and pounding drums (execpt for the snare, that is somehow powerless here and there). The vocals are throaty gurgling and croaking, every now and then emanating more shrieky inhuman voices. The heavy-ish production let's every element be heard easily, yet sounds dirty.

The songs are short for doom metal. Only two last for over four minutes, and one for seven minutes. It is either compositions or performances that make the songs feel like they last longer than they actually do. Often quite a bit longer... Heavy metal gone doom, slow atmosphere building (guess which song), groovier stuff (if it was faster, it could sound somewhat in ilk of Corrosion Of Conformity, Kyuss), honoring Black Sabbath, death-doom, and other piece with twist of funeral doom. Sandbreaker do quite a lot of different stuff here, but never losing the red thread. There are some weird effects used to build up the atmosphere even further. It is well done, but I still want the band to go further and be more peculiar; don't be shy on that spice, boys!

The lyrics carry various themes from conservation of nature to destroying opposing creatures of the same race (couldn't say "humans", right?!), perils of navigating space and of course: Sandworms!

'Worm Master' is simplistic, even minimalistic at times, but also characteristic and somehow damn atmospheric. One cannot pass this is "Dune" and doom metal are means of pleasure.

Rating: 7½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
01/31/2021 18:18