Tombs: Passageway – new video & Path Of Totality – full album stream

 

 

TOMBS' new video, ‘Passageways’, was directed by MyGoodEye's David Brodsky and sponsored by Scion AV. The tune comes from the band's much praised June 2011-released album ‘Path Of Totality’, recorded at Elmwood Recording Studios in Dallas, Texas with engineer John Congleton. Listen to the album in its entirety below and buy it here (Relapse Records) or here (BandCamp).

“No song is longer than seven minutes, but the sheer weight of build on pieces like ‘To Cross The Land’, starting with a stark guitar line that relentless transmutes into a crushing full arrangement, is breathtaking, an effect recurring on songs like ‘Silent World’. The deep-voiced chanting on ‘Passageways’ and elsewhere contrasts the rougher work from Hill [Mike, guitar & vocals] through most of the album, shading the compositions with an even doomier feeling. At its best, an individual song on the album feels like it could soundtrack a version of “Game of Thrones” that is nothing but bleakness without recompense, all shadows, betrayal, and undiluted power. It’s perhaps appropriate that the song ‘Bloodletters’ fulfills this brief perfectly, but ‘Black Heaven’ with its cannon-shot drumming and sheer exultant, tense power, may be the winner on a strong album through and through,” [complimented Ned Raggett, AllMusic – read the rest here]:

 

TOMBS: Path Of Totality

 

Formed in 2007 in Brooklyn, New York, TOMBS started as a collaboration between (former ANODYNE) frontman and guitarist Mike Hill, bassist Dominic Seita (ex-SPEEDLOADER) and drummer Justin Ennis (ex-THE HEURISTIC). Seita has been since replaced by Carson Daniel James and  Andrew Hernandez (ex-ASRA) took over drumming duties. The group is said to draw inspiration for their musical creations from “the harsh minimalism” of BLACK FLAG, from “the psychedelic overdrive” of SONIC YOUTH and MY BLOODY VALENTINE, from “the emotional ice” of GODFLESH, from “the sinister rock” of UNSANE and THE JESUS LIZARD, and from black metal bands such as DEATHSPELL OMEGA and DARKTHRONE. Their dark sounds were first released in form of an EP entitled (simply) ‘Tombs’ (Black Box Recordings/Level Plane Records). TOMBS' first full-length, ‘Winter Hours’, came out via Relapse Records in 2009. Described by AllMusic's Greg Prato as “impressively hypnotic and relentless” record, listen to the album in its entirety here (BandCamp) or below and buy ‘Winter Hours’ here:

 

TOMBS: Winter Hours

 

Their 14-track collection of early material, tracks from their split with PLANKS, and previously unreleased demos was issued in 2010 under the name ‘Fear Is The Weapon’. Again, the album is available for your listening pleasure here and below and should be bought from here (BandCamp):

 

TOMBS: Fear Is The Weapon

 

TOMBS features: Mike Hill - guitar and vocals, Andrew Hernandez – drums and Carson Daniel James – bass