Ambitiously trippy underground metal titans of the world unite! In 2022, Dream Unending, the duo of Tomb Mold guitarist Derrick Vella and extremely busy drum virtuoso Justin DeTore, released the strange and beautiful Song Of Survival, one of last year’s best metal albums. (Just last month, Tomb Mold returned with their surprise LP The Enduring Spirit, widely believed to be one of this year’s best metal albums.) Now, after just a few days of warning, Dream Unending have returned, teaming with their 20 Buck Spin labelmates Worm to release the new split album Starpath.

The Miami band Worm make a grandly gothic, exploratory form of old-school black metal. They’re coming off of the excellently titled 2021 album Foreverglade and the 2022 EP Bluenothing. Dream Unending and Worm really don’t sound anything alike, but they have similarly adventurous approaches. Dream Unending cut their gloomy, depressive death-doom with sudden flights of trippy, proggy jazz-fusion guitars and clean vocals. Worm go wild with reverb and pillowy keyboard melodies. Both bands have mastered the art of being heavy and pretty at the same time, without compromising either quality.

Dream Unending’s two Starpath tracks, “So Many Chances” and “If Not Now When,” both venture past the 10-minute frontier. The three new Worm tracks are all relatively concise, clocking in around the seven-minute mark. Both sides of the split are deep and immersive, and all of the tracks are full of ideas and atmosphere. Stream it below.

Starpath is out now on 20 Buck Spin.