The Wyrm – The Wyrm

Spain has been one of the last remaining forts for defending the values of traditionalism in Europe regarding the concept of soil and cultural heritage & it is pretty curious to see how theres not so many representatives using music as a mean that is abundant in their cultural environment in order to express this tendency and define its own defense in artistic terms. So this band "The Wyrm" is a radical representative in this regard & perhaps one of the only examples in their region.

In mythology, the wyrm is a monstruous representation of the forces of darkness & dissolution, turning everything that touches into decay. That pretty much resumes the core of "The Wyrm" manifesto, using radical speeches oriented in the vein of traditional conservatives such as Evola, Mishima, Guenon & other Spanish thinkers such as Manuel García Morente & Gustavo Bueno as vanguard concepts that somehow permeate the album with its halo.

This album has a radical tone that grants a place for polemic from the very beginning, the speeches take a central place during great part of the album & its center footnotes are not politically correct at all. Ranging from the need of returning to "blut und boden" values to the defense of culture & tradition as an imperative that must be introduced into society in order to avoid the destruction of civilization.

The most interesting parts from the album are whenever they bring all these concepts into form through poetry & combine the political transgression that may sound merely rhetoric with the militant tone embroided in regional instrumentations, introducing the use of vibrant drums, flutes, spanish gaitas, violins & other instruments that grant this pagan ritual touch to certain tracks. Nevertheless the direction of the album is somber & filled with grief theres a sign of determination in their militant tone.

The first third of the album dedicates to use radical speeches, Movie clips & militar chants over a background of muddy martial industrial loops, perhaps reminding us Arditi, Toroidh & Challenge of Honour but with the difference that in here, the accompaniment is merely a curtain that gives atmosphere to the speeches used. In tracks like "Perseguidos" and later with "Con las espadas en alto" the first live instrumentations appear behind the martial industrial loops & this gives this distinctive touch for the band.

When the loops are not present the live instrumentation takes prominence and the more folk side from the album evidences displaying this ever insistent instrumental strolling, reminding us the typical sound of musicians from towns & villages with its gaitas, violins & flutes that is also somehow shamanistic and pagan. In a way also reminds me of the creations of the portuguese band Sangre Cavallum only perhaps less elaborated but nevertheless interesting.

Remarkable tracks are the melancholic and compulsive "Gulag" with its guitar stroll accompanying the sad reflection exposed. "Canto de Cerunnos" that is like a ritualistic picture of a bucolic scene or the subsequent "Cisne Negro" that is like a very tranquil scene in the old mystic Spain. The beautifully poetic "Ser disidente" that recurs to the combination of an appeased militant folk to express determination & courage & the nocturnal "El bosque" yet again printing this mystic touch with the soft & dreamy chords of the guitar and the flute.

At some point seems like The Wyrm pretends to present the purest form of folk, rustic & somehow elemental, ritualistic & meditative to the consideration of the listener & although it is interesting its obvious after a while that the best tracks are the more elaborated and poetic, the ones in which the lyrical mixes with the poetic. Examples in action are: "Ser disidente","Durandarte", "Nuberu" and absolutely "Guerra al invasor".
The rest of the tracks from the last quarter of the album are really atmospheric & retain this atmosphere of ritualization that is magic and evocative and becomes overly important in the revelation exposed by The Wyrm.

To synthesize, the combination of the political radicalism with the ritualistic music with regional and national roots & the religious/pagan atmospherics related with nature & elements shows an intent to reconcile all these values into one core manifesto in which everything is related and at the same time compromised. Would be nice to see the further development from this band.