Tomb Mold - Planetary Clairvoyance
1 - WHAT DO TOMB MOLD SOUND LIKE?
Death Metal, originally very much in the Old School Death Metal vibe, but with this new album the band are pushing themselves into orbit, and heading towards the Death and Cynic type territory. Especially on albums such as Human and Symbolic, and Cynic’s Focus album.
2 - DISCOGRAPHY
Tomb Mold are one of the fastest and hardest working bands around (amongst any genre). Including their EP demos, Tomb Mold have had seven releases since 2016. Three full length albums in three years 2017’s Primordial Malignity, 2018’s Manor of Infinite Forms and now Planetary Clairvoyance. All of them are of superb quality. Usually this type of output would come across as rushed and the ideas not fully fleshed out, but these guys are becoming a true force - and fast!
3 - ARE THEY EVOLVING ENOUGH?
They don’t need to as long as the quality is this good, but yes! They are. One thing about Death Metal is that there really are no boundaries, we saw that with Death and how they paved the way for progression and genre bending sounds. Here Tomb Mold throw a short acoustic passage into the middle of the fantastic opener Beg for Life, which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Blackwater Park. It is the sign of this band progressing and improving upon their craft at a fast rate of knots, especially when you consider they have released three full length albums in as many years.
4 - IS IT TOMB MOLD OR TOMB MOLD?
Interesting question; is the matter to shape something, or the fungi. The fact that they are not called A Tomb Mold means from a literacy point of view that it is the fungi covering the outer shell of a tomb, or perhaps the inside is full of mold. Quick fact is that mould is only spelt that way in the USA. Elsewhere a U is thrown in after the O.
5 - WHAT ABOUT PLANETARY CLAIRVOYANCE?
Their best album to date. Opening with the 6 minute masterpiece that is Beg for Life, this track is close to the best thing they have done. The songwriting is next level, it is a ferocious opening that twists and turns and surprises you time and time again. The vocals are typically low end growls, but there are some nice little rips at the end of an occasional verse that remind me a lot of Chuck Schuldiner.
Phosphorene Ultimate is a wonderful 3 minute atmospheric outer space trip that sets a remarkable stamp on the environment we are placed in on this album. Vocals aside, the latter part of the album with Accelerative Phenomenae and the closing track Heat Death have some wonderful Sepultura and Slayer passages, particularly the guitars. Overall this sounds better, the songs are written better and it is more complex and technical.
6 - ARTWORK
All three full length albums are stark in comparison. The first album was black and white and skeletal. The artwork on Manor matched the sounds of the record, it being organic, like an underground festering carcass spilling free into tombs of fire and flesh and gaping wounds. Planetary Clairvoyance has that outer space alien vibe and the colours are the colours you would use as a child drawing Pluto or Venus. Dark blues and greens and shades of purple haze, full of cold blobs and eyelids. Love them all! The band have an aesthetic and that is important. A visual helps to create an atmosphere. This one was painted by Jesse Jacobi with additional art by Lucas Korte.
7 - PRODUCTION
The production on the solos alone is so great and has improved dramatically in less than twelve months. Overall the production is better, rounder in general and the riffs have more of a chug to them than their predecessors. Arthur Rizk was involved in the mixing and mastering, and he knows how to make things sound very sick indeed.
8 - DETAILS
Tracked in Canada.
7 tracks across 39 minutes.
Released 19 July 2019 on label 20 Buck Spin.
Recorded by Sean Pearson
9 - BEST THING ABOUT PLANETARY CLAIRVOYANCE
The sound of the guitars, the riffs and the solos.
10 - CLIP