Tombs - Path of Totality

Mike Hill's project tombs released a genre smashing follow up album even featured on npr, here's my walk through listen- though it is not my first listen to the album all the way through , my initial listen i was struck by how sonic this band stays even on the heavier parts
black hole summer - it with the same sonic fury of a band like liturgy before plunging into neurosis land with the roar of chaos reigns. it's a sludge sledgehammer from there the song pounds, though mid tempo it still has a dirge feel
to cross the land - starts off with eerie ring of reverbed guitar, before the bass begins to stalk the song, its allowed to build for two minutes into a blast beat barrage , the vocal remain at a forceful bellow , the guitar tone is hollow and very dark which wins points with me , Hill plays the right notes but is frugal with the ones he plays, after reading metal suck's top 25 modern metal guitarist i am determined to make my own and of course superior list so i find my self keying in on the guitar today . shifting into the dinosaur stomp , i could see where fans of the old mastodon might dig this ,
Constellations - what strikes me about alot of the riffs on here is how dark dense and sonic they are , they are allowed room to breath and ring out before going into the chug
bloodletters- comes in with driving chug and the neanderthal bellow - sprinkled with quick flurries of blast to counterpoint the ringing chords
path of totality- the ambiance is very short lived this song kicks the door in and goes for from the beginning, the vocals little more hateful here , the sonic elements remain present even on the quicker segments this songs goes back into the neurosis territory - there's a nice heavy chug section in this one and though the neurosis comparisons are going to be frequent due in part to the roar and manner they slam down on the lumbering riffs like say locust star , there is still a different ambiance feels more stark than neurosis and less organic, these guys will not be playing hacky sack at steven von till's drum circles .
Vermillion-goes back to the post black metal blister, then the clean vocals - a low croak over a single note break - builds into the growl, the blast beat bursts are one element that keeps their neurosis fixation at bay.
Silent world- the chords get a little brighter , fugazi comes to mind , the low moan of the clean vocals come in and actually make the songs darker , his singing voice is along the lines of a lower justin broadrick, the bass player lays it down solidly towards the end giving the guitar a little more room to float away
Cold Dark Eyes- comes in with another liturgy like blast , the snare sounds a little weak here, and comfortable when when they let up a little bit and go into the more ascendent patterns , at this point the predictability is beginning to set in, when it all dropout and let the guitars ramble, it comes back into a nice melodic guitar line
Blackheaven - starts a little more rock n roll think the cure than the others , before going liturgy at mach speed, this is tremolo picked swells , not slayer , i like the syncopated part here it is still very liturgy- in come the clean vocals , a good move to mix it up before the neuro- howl starts, lyrics can become more discernible even in the rough sections , song has a nice float
red shadows - ok back to the blast beat, minute of that then we get a slower more interesting riff, intros are not their strong suit then more roar kinda going into mayhem territory , like when the bass goes up higher on the middle melodic interlude of a verse, if i haven't mentioned they don't stick to the standard song structure, they have there own variations they stomp through, distorted clean vocals , fade in
ok last one angel of destruction- with the title i thought i was going to get blast beats from the get go instead there is more of a wind up - this might be the darkest song on the album , a very sabbath lumber with lots of space inbetween, the woe is me clean vocals are a nice touch , i like how they are produced my only complaint in production is the snare is a little flat its most noticeable on the blast beats
ok second listen i wasn't as blown away as the first time i heard it - its on my ipod so we will see what subsequent listens bring