Sitting a few weeks ago in my attic, pontificating on getting some work done, I gazed out of the window, like some kind of latter day Quasimodo, when an electronic growl emanated from my computer, signalling a communique from the bowels of hell from our esteemed editor, keeper of the souls. As the tar smeared, blood soaked scroll popped into my inbox asking ,as he does, who wants to take what from that weeks pick of the pops, representing a smorgasbord of the great, the good and the ugly of that week’s metal releases, one album stood out head and shoulders from the rest of the detritus… a new album from New York’s Tombs. Now, this band stand out for many reasons in my mind for a couple of very personal reasons. Do not worry gentle reader, this isn’t a primal scream for help, nor an in-depth personality profile wrapped under the auspices of an album review, but it’s a context I will share.
Take yourselves back to mid-March, the wet, wild and cruel winds of winter were beginning to give way to their natural enemies’ sunshine, warmth and hope. That was until a giant, dark hued behemoth named Covid, stomped onto the horizon, vomiting forth it’s poisonous bat flavoured breath and changed everything. Into lockdown we went and as such, life was augmented forever. I mention this period of my life as it was around this time, I was reviewing Tombs’ excellent EP ‘Monarchy of the Shadows’. Look, I appreciate that is about as long and rambling as an introduction gets but please bear with me. Not only was it a fabulous entertaining and genre bucking collection of songs, but it also forced me to stretch my musical lexicon and babbling incoherent scribblings into hitherto unexplored Black Metal territories. That I enjoyed that EP so much (along with their back catalogue) goes to show that an old dog can learn new tricks and thus my previously unexplained reticence to embrace Black Metal in all its corpse painted, keyboard heavy glory, was cast asunder.
So, to this, Tomb’s new full-length effort, but is it any good? Does it expand on the great work displayed on their aforementioned EP? Well the answer to that, in spades, is categorically yes. I think what I enjoy so much about this band, and especially with this album, is that Tombs, whilst embracing their black metal origins and obvious influences, refuse to be constrained by genre conventions and frequently blend other richer, deeper and warm sounding influences and ingredients into their sound. Of course, the galloping drums and orchestral keyboard driven flourishes are clear, front, and centre along with the reverb heavy growls and screeches of frontman and band leader Mike Hill, there is real depth here. Often (and no more so than on song ‘The Hunger’) the pace really slackens and a groove laden, crunchy guitar riff, shimmers and growls, as it all coalesces into a big bowl of warm, tasty, crunchy metal soup. It has a touch of Motorhead, with the Godzilla heavy guitars of Sepultura. It is really, really fucking good.
To have the confidence to segue from genre to genre within songs, shows what a talented band of musicians that Hill has contrived to put together. Again, on next song ‘Secrets of the Black Sun’, the path further slackens into a funeral dirge of doom ladened, graveyards, shrouded in mist and beastly murmurings, before changing gear into something more akin to their Black Metal roots. This album, if anything, really strives to keep you on your toes, making you second guess your way through the entirety of the album and still leaving you wanting more. Album closer ‘Plague Years’ shoves pretty much six genres of music into one song as it speeds up and slows down like an epileptic Waltzer attendant. There is so much to unpack on this album, it will take multiple listens beyond those that I have already given it and I would easily expect to find something new and exquisite on each further listen. Close to being a classic but not quite, I can only hypothesise what Tombs will unfurl to the world next, but my betting will be that it will be a nailed on, stonewalled classic.
(9/10 Nick Griffiths)
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