MALTWORM are a death/thrash metal band from Sofia, Bulgaria, formed by veterans of the local underground whose previous and current projects include Granulom, Ciroza, Bleak Revelation, Hellrider, Historian, Inspell, Charda, Eufobia and others. Built around a shared love for old-school death metal, thrashy riffing and twisted melodies, the band combines the rawness of extreme metal with enough punk attitude and unpredictability to keep things far away from sterile genre worship.

The name itself comes from an old English word for a heavy drinker - an appropriate choice for a band united not only by extreme metal, but also by a certain enthusiasm for beer and whiskey. Shakespeare provided the final inspiration through a line from Henry IV: “mad mustachio purple-hued malt-worms.”

MALTWORM wasted little time getting started. Less than three months after forming, the band were already performing a full set of original material. What followed was a steady rise through the Bulgarian underground: club shows, festival appearances and increasingly prominent support slots, eventually sharing stages with international names including Behemoth, Testament, Unleashed, Pestilence, Impaled Nazarene, Rage and Left To Die (ex-Death).

The band made its first recorded statement with the single “Yersinia Pestis” in 2019, recorded, mixed and mastered by Vladimir Bochev at Zero Project Studios in Sofia. Work on a debut full-length soon followed, but with the album essentially completed in 2020, the pandemic brought both the live scene and the band’s release plans to an abrupt halt.

A period of line-up changes followed before guitarist Nikolay Velev - known from bands such as Inspell, Historian, Powerdrive, Scapegoat and many more - joined the group and helped complete the line-up that would finally bring the debut album to live stages.

“Global Worming” was released in November 2022. With artwork by Julian D’Bones, whose credits include work with Exciter and Virgin Steele, the album established the band’s musical identity: extreme metal firmly rooted in the old school, but never interested in simply recreating the past.

The record quickly brought MALTWORM wider attention. At the end of 2022, the band won Bulgarian national rock radio Z-Rock’s Reynaers Rock Trampoline competition and entered its weekly Reynaers Top 30 chart. “The Kvlt Ov The Maltworm” remained in the chart for 40 weeks and spent six consecutive weeks at No. 1 - an unusual achievement for an uncompromising extreme-metal track competing alongside far more radio-friendly artists.

The following summer brought the band its biggest milestone to date. MALTWORM won the Bulgarian final of Wacken Metal Battle 2023, earning a place at Wacken Open Air in Germany. On 2 August 2023, the band performed at one of the world’s largest metal festivals in front of an international audience.

Further shows in Bulgaria and Romania followed, together with festival appearances including Sofia Metal Fest 2024. During the writing process for their second album, MALTWORM also released the singles “The Ballad Of Caleb” in 2023 and “To Serve In Silence” in 2024, offering the first glimpse of the band’s next chapter.

In 2026, MALTWORM entered another phase of its evolution. Long-time guitarist Martin Bachvarov and bassist Deyan Videv departed on friendly terms, with guitarist Ivan Gemijev - known from Eufobia, Past Redemption, Dreg Starz etc. - joining the band alongside Evgeni “Indianeca” Evgeniev, the original bassist on “Global Worming” and a veteran of Granulom, Rampart and Post Scriptum.

The renewed line-up already made its live debut in August 2026, headlining the open air TRAP FEST 2026.

With a second album in the works, a refreshed line-up and years of underground mileage behind them, MALTWORM continue doing what brought the band together in the first place: playing thrashy death metal with twisted melodies, punk attitude and very little interest in behaving properly.