I'm not going to lie - typically when a band is labeled as "deathgrind", my initial reaction is usually "ehhhhhh". I find it's usually a poor attempt to gain crossover appeal and usually just winds up being overly simplistic death metal at it's core. Big meh. But, sometimes, a band like Tomb Warden comes around and totally proves me wrong. They definitely do deathgrind properly - the grind parts are grind, and the death parts are death, and they're stitched together in a groovy way that feels thought out and complete.
Let's start with the record itself - this 7" comes in a single fold jacket with some gritty looking cover art. There's a lot of detail to the art, and I think it fits the record that's inside of it. I'm just hoping that the look on the guys face isn't from taking a swig out of that beer bottle with a cigarette butt in it, haha!
So how does this three piece from Virginia actually sound? Right out of the gate - the first track "Eroded" starts with a ripping death metal riff into a blast and keeps up the energy from there. While that track slows down a little towards the end - we pick right back up into the grind with the next track,"Reality Plague". This is definitely a grindcore track; it's a pounding blast beat into a groove that leads us into the last track on the first side, "Bronze Bull". This song is a total knuckle dragger - I can definitely see myself lurching across a pit slamming people to this. The second side of this EP doesn't slow down either; here again, we have grind parts mixed with death metal parts, all weaved together into a putrid mess of brutality. The sound of this EP is on point; the blasts definitely kick you in the teeth and are present in the mix, and they play well with the high gain guitar tone. I love the bass sound as well - it has that very traditional grinding tone to it, and it really pulls everything together. The cavernous sounding low growls are great, and right up front like they should be. All in all, a very good sounding record that has a certain amount of rawness present within its polish.
I'm excited to see what this band does next. Rumor has it that they're going on tour in 2019, and I'm hoping that also means a new release to get my hands on. These guys definitely have their own brand of deathgrind brutatlity, and it's done right. I've listened to this EP a bunch already, and I'll go back to it in the future for sure.
Rating: 8/10 Tomb Warden bc Tomb Warden fb
Let's start with the record itself - this 7" comes in a single fold jacket with some gritty looking cover art. There's a lot of detail to the art, and I think it fits the record that's inside of it. I'm just hoping that the look on the guys face isn't from taking a swig out of that beer bottle with a cigarette butt in it, haha!
So how does this three piece from Virginia actually sound? Right out of the gate - the first track "Eroded" starts with a ripping death metal riff into a blast and keeps up the energy from there. While that track slows down a little towards the end - we pick right back up into the grind with the next track,"Reality Plague". This is definitely a grindcore track; it's a pounding blast beat into a groove that leads us into the last track on the first side, "Bronze Bull". This song is a total knuckle dragger - I can definitely see myself lurching across a pit slamming people to this. The second side of this EP doesn't slow down either; here again, we have grind parts mixed with death metal parts, all weaved together into a putrid mess of brutality. The sound of this EP is on point; the blasts definitely kick you in the teeth and are present in the mix, and they play well with the high gain guitar tone. I love the bass sound as well - it has that very traditional grinding tone to it, and it really pulls everything together. The cavernous sounding low growls are great, and right up front like they should be. All in all, a very good sounding record that has a certain amount of rawness present within its polish.
I'm excited to see what this band does next. Rumor has it that they're going on tour in 2019, and I'm hoping that also means a new release to get my hands on. These guys definitely have their own brand of deathgrind brutatlity, and it's done right. I've listened to this EP a bunch already, and I'll go back to it in the future for sure.
Rating: 8/10 Tomb Warden bc Tomb Warden fb
Review by Nick Vecellio
