Tombs
Path Of Totality

To write this review I relied on multiple listens, leaving nothing to chance, letting every note of this splendid work flow through me, not overlooking even the smallest atmosphere, in order to understand, to fully comprehend the soul of this "Path of totality".

The moment you press play, a bubbling yet cold wave of sound clings to our poor eardrums; it's "Black hole of summer" (what a title indeed), with those lysergic keyboards, those sludge rhythms, deeply metal and that cavernous voice signaling an imminent apocalypse, almost desperate.

The Tombs from Brooklyn, after the promising debut a few years ago with "winter hours", hit the mark again: they push even further that mix of old-school hardcore, black metal, sludge, and psychedelia which had previously earned them more than flattering adjectives with the aforementioned debut; increasing the adrenaline dose of Scandinavian black, further intensifying the structures with unprecedented visceral emotion and suffering (reminiscent of works like the beautiful "the trident" by the phenomenal Unearthly Trance), emphasizing grooves more leading, destructive, almost metal-core (the best school, of course) than ever before. There is a sense of inner defeat, apocalyptic malaise, self-destructive cosmic pessimism, almost as if it were a philosophical work, so explanatory in its downward spirals, in its malevolent lands that draw the soul from the depths; ranging from the sludgy and aforementioned opener, to the black fury, with a striking psychedelic hint (which will be the glue throughout the work), of the splendid "to cross the land" and the title track, to the doom prog of the annihilating "silent world", to the virulent seismic jolt of "red shadows", to close beautifully with an "angel of destruction" decidedly lysergic in its progression, where the catatonic doom of candlemass plays a fundamental role, but also Electric Wizard and the latest Ramesses and company, blended with American school sludge, offspring of the best Eyehategod, Iron monkey, and so on.

The result is an ultra-compact piece where black metal fury, sludge core destruction, collide with ultra-psychedelic and prog landscapes in the depths, in perhaps a never-before-so-perfect way; a monumental, long, difficult, stunning work, akin to a boulder, as said annihilating, the perfect soundtrack of some Lucio Fulci, or Mario Bava horror-splatter-gore. Among neurosis, electric wizard, wolves in the throne room, eyehategod, celtic frost, and darkthrone, there is now something that stands amidst all these cited names, taking the best of the worst, translating it into a fascinatingly suburban and ultra-psychedelic context, to spit it out with unheard-of fury and venom that will make your spirit writhe in psycho-physical pain.

Definitely above average, I continue to follow them, and I advise you to do the same!