CRYPTOPSY Frontman Talks About Smoking 'Snake Ribs', Eating Worms

When original CRYPTOPSY vocalist Lord Worm recently rejoined the band, having left the Canadian death metal act in 1998, it also marked the return of one of metal's most bizarre frontmen.

"I got my nickname Lord Worm a long time ago, before CRYPTOPSY existed," the vocalist tells the Swedish magazine Close-Up. "In the late '80s, I used to hang out with a mysterious guy from England who was a dark magician. He always carried with him a portable altar, a bunch of bones, a set of knives, ampoules containing blood and a lot of other shit. We used to have séances and smoke weird stuff.”

Such as?

"Well, I guess snake ribs was the weirdest stuff we smoked. It's great to smoke, I can tell you."

You must be joking! I'm not totally familiar with the anatomy of a snake, but surely it doesn't have ribs?

"Not like human ribs, a snake's ribs are not as hard," explains Lord Worm.
"They're hollow, that's why they're so good to smoke. You smoke a rib rather quickly, but the effect is quite funny. It's hard to describe, it's a special feeling.

"Anyway, when SUFFOCATION came to Canada for their first show here in 1993, we got the support slot and had to do something extra to stick out and get the audience's attention. SUFFOCATION had become successful with their album 'Effigy of the Forgotten' and we were an insignificant band who had released just one demo. With that in mind I came up with the idea of having a worm-eating show on stage.

"At every gig fans turn up and gather in front of the stage hoping to get a little taste," continues Lord Worm. "People wanna eat worm. It's become a tradition. These days I always buy the same amount of worms before a gig: two dozen. One dozen for myself and another dozen for the people in the first couple of rows. Sometimes I feel like a bird mom feeding her nestlings. If you chew the worms, they taste fucking bad. If you swallow them, it's like eating cold spaghetti."

On June 16, CRYPTOPSY drummer Flo Mounier performed at the Museum Of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto, Ontario as part of the "Demons Stole My Soul – Rock 'n' Roll Drums In Contemporary Art" exhibit.

"Among other things, the visitors got the opportunity to watch him play on a drum set made out of cheese!" says Lord Worm. "The entire drum set was made out of cheese, maybe with the exception of the cymbals. I couldn't be there to watch this historic event. Perhaps just as well; Flo later told me that it was pretty crappy playing the cheese drum set."