"Destroy mankind
Conquer and cleanse
Worship only Death and kill yourselves
Reincarnation of war"
Want to play a round of guess the genre by the lyrics? Or is it too easy?
Of course it's nihilistic Black Metal straight from the mouth of the abyss.
T.O.M.B. - Terror Winds (CD) (2022)
While they are a new discovery for me, T.O.M.B. from Pennsylvania have actually been in this game for over twenty years now and appearantly developed their own distinct approach, which speaks to 1990's traditionalists as well as fans of more recent masters of dissonance and Avant-Garde Black and Death Metal. And if the full band name Total Occultic Mechanical Blasphemy suggests to you that there might also be some Industrial influence in their sound, you are completely right.
Many elements here immediately hook the maniac in me who crowned the latest releases of Imperial Triumphant and Wiegedood as his second and third favorite album of 2022. T.O.M.B. however don't take the artistic abstraction as far as the former and pour out their hellish flood in a much more straight-forward manner. Contradictory the sharp saw-like electronic sounds amidst the maelstrom and generally a lot of shrill elements in the production of "Terror Winds" threw me off a little at first, so I needed at least the first run through this rather short album (only thrirty-four minutes) just to adjust my ears.
Of course cavernous sound aesthetics is a long established tool which already Possessed used on "Seven Churches" (1985) to increase brutality and cover up the weaknesses of their instrumental performance. The latter part obviously isn't T.O.M.B.'s motivation at all, because their delivery is absolutely on point.
In fact they rightfully were so confident in their abilities that they recorded these six frantic outbursts of evil live. Certainly far from the norm of the genre this decision pays off with a huge dose of unfiltered raw energy, which probably is the main attraction of "Terror Winds" without diminishing other aspects like songwriting, arrangements or sinister atmosphere.
Claiming a third of the total running for itself, the doom-infused closer "Reincarnation" is reason enough to check out this malicious storm of Black Noise alone. Bleak brutality for aficionados.
Many elements here immediately hook the maniac in me who crowned the latest releases of Imperial Triumphant and Wiegedood as his second and third favorite album of 2022. T.O.M.B. however don't take the artistic abstraction as far as the former and pour out their hellish flood in a much more straight-forward manner. Contradictory the sharp saw-like electronic sounds amidst the maelstrom and generally a lot of shrill elements in the production of "Terror Winds" threw me off a little at first, so I needed at least the first run through this rather short album (only thrirty-four minutes) just to adjust my ears.
Of course cavernous sound aesthetics is a long established tool which already Possessed used on "Seven Churches" (1985) to increase brutality and cover up the weaknesses of their instrumental performance. The latter part obviously isn't T.O.M.B.'s motivation at all, because their delivery is absolutely on point.
In fact they rightfully were so confident in their abilities that they recorded these six frantic outbursts of evil live. Certainly far from the norm of the genre this decision pays off with a huge dose of unfiltered raw energy, which probably is the main attraction of "Terror Winds" without diminishing other aspects like songwriting, arrangements or sinister atmosphere.
Claiming a third of the total running for itself, the doom-infused closer "Reincarnation" is reason enough to check out this malicious storm of Black Noise alone. Bleak brutality for aficionados.
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