Year: 2020
Total Time: 60:00
Label: Season Of Mist
Looks like Mike Hill finally found the ideal collaborators he needed to express his dark musical vision. The coming of Justin Spaeth, Matt Medeiros and Drew Murphy in 2018 rejuvenated the Brooklyn outfit, which is why a few months after the excellent EP “Monarchy Of Shadows”, TOMBS are now returning with their fifth album, “Under Sullen Skies”.
Picking up from where they left us with their EP this year, the band unleashes its attack by successfully combining Black Metal, Doom and Gothic Rock, creating a very special sound, extreme but also atmospheric at the same time.
Although “Under Sullen Skies” is an aggressive album, all the songs are characterized by a gloomy atmosphere of despair and melancholy. The perfect soundtrack you’d think of the time we live in.
Black Metal prevails in most of the album’s compositions, and blast beats are relentless, from the opening “Bone Furnace” to the devastating ending with “Plague Years”. Of course, the Black Metal of TOMBS is not one-dimensional, but it is full of changes in pace and style. Sometimes they’ll groove, sometimes they’ll slow down, sometimes they’ll even venture into Death Metal territory like the ferocious “Lex Talonis”.
In “The Hunger”, with the help of Dwid Hellion of INTEGRITY and his ala Lemmy vocals, the band sounds like the bastard child of DANZIG and MOTORHEAD, creating this way perhaps their first “hit”. In “Secrets Of The Black Sun” that follows, FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM meets NEUROSIS for an atmospheric Doom anthem, while “Barren”, one of the highlights of the album, give us one of the most graceful transitions from Black to Post Metal with a mesmerising melodic solo by Ray Suhy of SIX FEET UNDER.
“Under Sullen Skies” is a collaborative effort between all band members as well as a plethora of guest musicians, which all contributed to the variety of this dark beast. The talents of the band are highlighted by the exemplary production of Bobby Torres while Valnoir (BLUT AUS NORD, PARADISE LOST, etc.) created an excellent artwork that manages to capture the apocalyptic mood of the record. Mike Hill stated, “This record and the EP came out about as close as I could imagine to what I have in my brain about how this band should sound” and I fully concur with this statement – this is TOMBS at the best time of their career!
Rating: 8/10
Editor: Dimitris Benetatos
Related Link: TOMBS – Official Page
