Worms of the Earth

Holy larvae crap! The spoken parts here are, to put it mildly, overacted. The opener is atmosphere-crushing introduction-type thing, lasting for over 3 looooong minutes... I mean its sound effects are pretty well done, but this Titus Silla guy sounds way too funny. Sadly this happens right at the beginning, and leaves its deep marks that aren't easily forgotten.

Rosae Crucis are a true heavy metal band from Rome, Italy. 'Worms of the Earth' is their debut full length album, and its story is based on a fantasy short story with the same name, written by author Robert E. Howard, the creator of the whole "Sword & Sorcery" genre. I am not familiar with this story, but generally I feel it doesn't adapt well into the musical form in the hands of Rosae Crucis. The biggest frailty is aforementioned acted sections, which stretch already longish entity. "Real" songs are pretty speedy for big part, a lot of double kick drumming and even blast beats are heard (especially on 'The Justice of Roma', 'Bran Mak Morn' and 'The Worms of the Earth' serve this faster stuff). Thankfully the band know how to slow down, and add more deeper feel to their music, it's 'Escape from Eboracum', 'The Dagon's Moor' and 'The Witch' which are THE kings on this field. Even though musically non-dexterous, Rosae Crucis sound themselves enough (maybe Virgin Steele is partly quite close how RC sound like, even those overacted sections, hah). And for those who loathe synthesizers; they aren't heard on this one...

Vocals are very varying. It's high-sung yet masculine voice which is heard the most, but there's small and bigger choirs, which are very well utilized, and even some growling. Plus those spoken parts which are partly okay, partly overacted shite. Another drawback is the vocalists' pronunciation of English language, which sucks. And I really don't like those helium-screams heard every now and then. Anyway, it's Eldritch's vocalist that comes to my mind listening to this. The album artwork dull, the possibilities that the story gave aren't used. Sound-wise this packs punch, with heavy and clear production. The guys handle their instruments well enough, no complaints.

At best, 'Worms of the Earth' is really virile heavy metal, but it is plagued by too long duration and some stupid acting. I think it would have worked better if there was 2-3 songs and that stupid intro left out. But there's "next track" button on my player, so... At first, it was very hard to get into this album, but repeated listenings showed that Rosae Crucis are capable of good things, so I'm keeping this for occasional headbangin' heavy metal treats. The next album will show, if the band is truly ready to be more than just moderately good.

(Originally written for ArchaicMetallurgy.com in 2007)