Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Album Review: Tomb Mold - Planetary Clairvoyance

Tomb Mold
Planetary Clairvoyance
*** out of *****

Tomb Mold hail from the cold North of Toronto, but their heavy as hell tunes and cosmic excursions suggest even further out locales for their landing points in the cosmic realm of heavy metal.  The quartets most recent album is Planetary Clairvoyance and it plays in many metallic sub genres as it slams its way through your cranium.  

The quartet,  Max Klebanoff Drums, Vocals,  Steve Musgrave Bass, Payson Power and Derrick Vella Guitars, slam and motor but also use intricate passages and shifts in tone to keep the ear off balanced and engaged. Opener "beg For Life" has the most obvious example of this as midway through the tune there is an acoustic break with classical guitar amidst the heavy riffs crunching low end which leads to soaring solos and riffs to close; it is an exhilarating display of metal prowess. 
If you are listening to a band named Tomb Mold, you probably already have some idea what these vocals sound like, but Klebanoff goes one step deeper and beyond. Their lyrics incorporate outer space, aliens and possibly the financial situation of modern day Bombay, but listeners will never be able to understand any of it. 

There is no doubt that metal fans are used to this, but the vocal style completely limits the groups appeal and acts a one trick pony, without adding lyrical content to the mix, a shame because this playing is top notch. 
    
"Planetary Clairvoyance (They Grow Inside Pt 2)" uses double kick drum and mixes punk with metal as soaring guitars slam into each other and soar. Both "Infinite Resurrection" and "Accelerative Phenomenae" frantically travel up and down the fret-board with screeching riffs, hyper active drummer and thundering finales while "Phosphorene Ultimate" is a bizarre spoken word sound experiment which works as a pause from the metal assault.  

"Cerulean Salvation" ends with a spacey flow which drips into the black hole chaos of "Heat Death" which just may be the best of the bunch with its elongated intro. If you enjoy the singing style or even can just deal with it, Planetary Clairvoyance, is a hell of metal record. Even as it stands RtBE enjoys the pounding and growling immensely. 
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It is going to be a very metal week here on RtBE. Support the artists, buy the album, stream it on bandcamp or below and peep some video:


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