Genre: Black Metal / Harsh Noise

01 The Inauguration
02 Immitis
03 Shaare Moth
04 Brazen Endurance
05 United by Blakk Blood
06 Fog Ritual
07 Macabre Noize Royale
08 The Proclamation
09 Tempus Eversionis
10 Bleed Bitch Bleed
11 I Dine on the Tongues of Hypocrites
12 ABLANATHANALBA
13 Christening of Demons

“Holy Fuck!” That’s all I could say after listening to this album for the first time. After flipping through the latest batch of CD’s Heathen Harvest sent me I was immediately drawn to the striking cover art of this album, and after reading the press release info that was included I was instantly throwing it into my stereo. This is the first full-length album by T.O.M.B. (Total Occultic Mechanical Blasphemy), taking just under five years to record. How it was recorded though is where it really starts to get interesting. Several illegal spots were chosen (Bethlehem Steel Works, Eden Hall Church, Laurel Hill Cemetery, and Lambertville High School), all of which have nefarious histories of death, arson, and destruction. Large steel rods were brought to these spots and used to beat out the pounding rhythms and ambient sounds that worm their way through the extremely lo-fi and layered black metal found through out the album. Check out this video to check out some of what went on in during the recordings. It seems like one man is behind the ideas and direction of the album, bringing in a slew of musicians to flesh out the “songs“.

The first track “The Inauguration” sounds almost like power electronics with deep sub-pulsing bass and field recording ambience laying the foundation for some throat-slitting vocals. Instantly you are thrown from the electronics heavy first track, into the pure black metal filth of the second song “Immitis”. While there are some more “normal” sounding black metal songs through out the album, rest assured that each one of them is full of filthy noise, heavily effected vocals, and a lo-fi “room ambience” production quality.

The guitars are heavy, straight forward, noisy as fuck, and just a little sloppy. The drumming is tight and lightning fast (no triggers here!). Songs like the sixth track “Fog Ritual” are my favorites. These combine the field recording aspects, power electronics like noise, and some unique bass heavy, doom laden black metal (is that a fucking amen beat I hear!?!). All in all this is a really unique band with a wide variety of ideas offered in the span of just 40 minutes. Always an unrelenting atmosphere, and full of hate. Highly recommended!