TOMB MOLD have emerged as one of the most talked about new death metal bands around. Usually that bodes ill for a band, but for these guys, it is perfectly understandable. They have found a way to merge sick, diseased sounding death metal with a more technical and progressive version of the genre. This is by no means an easy thing to do, as the scale usually tips too much in one direction for such a combo to actually work.
TOMB MOLD make it work. Planetary Clairvoyance picks up where their last album Manor Of Infinite Form left off. They start things off with a chugging, heaving kind of death metal featuring horrid corpse growls on ‘Beg For Life’. This is the kind of DM that fans of AUTOPSY and NECROT can appreciate. But then there is some precise solo guitar work with melody not a million miles away from progressive era DEATH and ATHEIST layered on top of the filth. The result is intriguing and unique.
These guys also have a weird science fictional angle to them, as song titles such as ‘Infinite Resurrection’, ‘Accelerative Phenomenae’ and ‘Heat Death’ indicate. There are weird digressions into ambient space sounds…indeed, ‘Phosphorene Ultimate’ is entirely in that mode…and that helps give TOMB MOLD another level of uniqueness. The band’s style coalesces perfectly on the monster track ‘Heat Death’, where all their diverse aspects merge into one cosmic ballcrusher of SF-influenced death metal.
A lot of spacey death metal bands tend to sound too clean and progressive, but TOMB MOLD hangs on to the sicker aspects of the music. Give them a try and expand your consciousness…
Review By: Dr. Abner Mality
TOMB MOLD
Planetary Clairvoyance
20 Buck Spin
4.5 / 6