Verminthrone - Feast Of The Serpent (EP Review)

Release Date: December 19th 2025. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD

Feast Of The Serpent  - Tracklisting

Pallor

Swab

When It Rains, It Pours

Bloodletting

Event Horizon

Review

Crossover/Groove/Thrash Metallers Verminthrone return with their latest EP - Feast Of The Serpent. The EP offers five tracks running for around twenty six minutes in length. This is a similar vibe to their celebrated 2024 debut album The Cull with its great mix of fast-paced and brutally filthy sounds. The music is once again very fast-paced with a certain modern day Sludge/Stoner Metal pedigree shining through with Verminthrone keeping true to their core Thrash/Groove based melodies. The vocals are quite intense with a vicious Death Growl being used for the most part.

The opening song of Pallor leaves you gasping for breath with the multitude of different beatdowns and breakdowns Verminthrone delivers with supreme confidence. The sound is uplifted or amplified by a sudden rush of Crust Punk and Hardcore metallic elements which is used quite sparingly at first before the band decides to throw a TON of muscular weight for that particular sound being one of the most dominant themes on the whole EP.

The next batch of tracks of Swab and When It Rains, It Pours continues with the Crossover movement with an epic sideline of HIGH ON FIRE, METALLICA and MOTORHEAD delivered musical moments that allows Verminthrone to operate with a clearer and riff-driven mandate. The mood is still BLEAK and aggressively violent but at least there’s some demented THRASH paced fun to be had along the way. You can hear shades of Classic Heavy Metal guitar shredding being delivered with both tracks that’s played at breakneck speed. 

Feast Of The Serpent never loses its monumental style of extreme heaviness with Verminthrone perhaps delivering darker and heavier moments of Sludge Metal grooves with great vocals and some epic lyrics selling the whole package right through to the very end. The final two songs of Bloodletting and Event Horizon both offer a more daring and violent creative theme with Verminthrone playing the heaviest and gloomiest sounds on the whole EP.

Verminthrone never waiver from delivering an action packed and violent style of filth driven Sludge Metal sounds. There are brief moments of Post-Doom and Psych Stoner Metal surroundings appearing on the later stages but the band still true to their HEAVY METAL beliefs that results in another standout release from Verminthrone to enhance their reputation with. 

Words by Steve Howe

Links 

Linktree | BandCamp

Verminthrone - The Cull (Album Review)

Release Date: 16th February 2024. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD

The Cull - Tracklisting

Don’t Trust Morning People

It Always Snow In South America

Kuru

Birth Is A Rope/Death Is A Knot

Pulling Teeth (Spitting Blood)

Youth For Euthanasia

Aorta

Feral

Review

The Cull is the debut album from Crossover/Groove/Sludge Metallers Verminthrone who describe themselves as Sludgecore but there’s a lot more to the band than that description. As the band play elements of Crust Punk, Doom Metal and Stoner Metal for a sound that is quite nasty with brutal beats and breakdowns that elevates the album to high levels of PISSED OFF volumes.

The vocals are quite content remaining in the heavier realm with a never-ending supply of death based growls, grunts and chants throughout the record. The Cull is quite thorough with the Crossover/Thrash grooves that appear within the early stages of the album with the Sludgecore aspects allowing Verminthrone to play some outstanding Doom/Sludge extended instrumental passages on tracks such as Don’t Trust Morning People and It’s Always Snows In South America where a sublime NOLA based aspect starting to form. 

The music is constantly fast paced with the band playing some subtle screeching guitars that provide an unsettling mood. However, there’s some epic melodic moments on the album which will surprise many though Verminthrone impresses greatly on the more violent Sludge/Thrash/Groove Metal aspects of the album.

There’s an excellent STONER creative energy within the album even if it’s fuelled by bleak cynicism that appears within the excellent lyrics written for the record. The album feels inspired by bands such as POWER TRIP, DOWN, LAMB OF GOD, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, METALLICA and SLAYER with Verminthrone blasting their way through a classic style of 1980’s Thrash Metal, 1990’s Groove Metal and modern day aspects of Doom/Sludge Metal that all providing an refreshing style of HEAVY METAL to devour audiences with.

Other standout tracks include: Kuru, Birth Is A Rope/Death Is A Knot, Youth For Euthanasia and Feral with some of these songs marching confidently into Progressive Sludge territory and small traces of Psychedelic sounds starting to dominate in the background.

The Cull runs around thirty seven minutes in length but feels much longer which is another highlight of the album. With excellent production values which are handled by Tom Dring at The Arch Recording Studios (Dragged into Sunlight, Dvne, Venom Prison) allowing Verminthrone to destroy everything within its path and release an album that’s superbly entertaining and one that is always constantly engaging from start to finish.

Verminthrone may have opened the door for an exciting career and future for themselves within the UK/European Sludge Metal Scene with The Cull. Ignore this great album at your own peril. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

Words by Steve Howe 

Thanks to Verminthrone for the promo.

The Cull will be available to buy on DD from Friday 16th February 2024.

Links

Linktree | BandCamp