Review Summary: Tomb Mold worship a good riff. We worship Tomb Mold.
I’m going to go ahead and say it:
Planetary Clairvoyance is better than
Manor of Inifinite Forms. Just as
Manor of Inifinite Forms is better than Tomb Mold’s
Primordial Malignity. It’s a [not-so] hard thing to type but as savage and downright worshipped as Tomb Mold’s 2018 effort is, there’s just something about their combination of nods to genre legends and organic modern escapades that continues the band’s dominance, spewed upon any surface. Simply put, these guys work hard at what they do. Since dropping a debut full-length (yes, there’s a couple of EPs to mention there) Tomb Mold has had a consistent release schedule and as each release has reigned superior than its former it raises the question: Are these guys actually just fu
cking with us？ I mean, it’s a logical level of transformation; take amicable growth, maturity and a hell of a starting point and it becomes difficult to deny the sheer magnitude of these Ontario based death heads and their yearly offerings. Underlying hyperbole aside, Tomb Mold have no right being
this good.
But they most certainly are.
Planetary Clairvoyance is a slab of proficient sound, harrowing death metal that's geared to take the best of what the last four decades of death metal has had to offer. I’m not trying to feed into the hyperbole, Tomb Mold’s attention to well executed details are doing wonders for them but it all leads back to those vehement riffs and pummeling bass lines. The song writing itself has become slightly more complex, but there’s more room for ideas to breathe.
Planetary Clairvoyance’s opener, “Beg For Life” is but one example on a thirty-eight minute slab of belching death and even from the record’s initial moments there’s a wall of atmosphere that presses in on the listener. It’s agonizing, enveloping itself among a guttural, yet thick soundscape. “Beg For Life” is as much of a death meets thrash fest as it is a cavernous display of masculinity sticking well within the confines of its own virulence. It’s here that Tomb Mold’s 2019 piece starts standing above its predecessor. The riffs twist and fans willingly trap themselves to the towering music on offer.
Planetary Clairvoyance continue it's colossal display of deathly grandeur, but there’s variance. When we’re not getting thoroughly slammed by the album’s title track we see glimmers in the murky caverns to which all manner of slimey grotesque grows. “Phosphorene Ultimate” surprises with a take on clean, almost celestial melody and we see other tid-bits of clean death metal juxtapositions that seemingly come from nowhere (see: “Beg For Life”). It’s these moments that provide just enough respite and wonderment to get listeners ready for the next visceral onslaught.
The latter half of the new album sees a slightly more doomed approach to Tomb Mold’s less than joyous songwriting without conforming to mindless genre hopping or influence plagiarism. “Cerulean Salvation” takes a centered, but incredibly dense approach to reshaping again Tomb Mold’s stranglehold on an old-school death metal genre. Album closer, “Heat Death” takes a similar throbbing, in vein approach and is accentuated by some rather tasteful solo work that has more focus on melody than the often frenetic whirlwind of notes expected. What’s left is the forlorn wanderings of some plodding notes and ringing chords as Tomb Mold’s latest full-length comes to a close. The sampling is off-putting but leaves the door open for another album to pick up where
Planetary Clairvoyance left off (I would hazard a guess at sometime next year at this rate). Overall the foundation to which Tomb Mold craft delicious riffs and ear tearing growls is becoming progressively more solid. The immense weight of these Ontarians may shift slightly, but they remain well grounded in the past to bring new futures, ensuring a lack of sincere stagnation.
Planetary Clairvoyance may not stray or deviate too far from what fans have come to love, sticking well to the deathly march and solid riffing they know.
