By this point learned metalheads shouldn't have to be told that Tombs are a top-shelf act. Their coming out party, 2011's Path of Totality, was even named Decibel Magazine's Album of the Year. The NY quartet carry over the qualities that lead to that album's critical success on their latest transmission of darkness, Savage Gold.

For this release mainman Mike Hill (vocals/guitars) is once again joined by drummer extraordinaire Andrew Hernandez as well as newcomers Ben Brand (bass, ex-Woe) and Flourishing guitarist Garrett Bussanick. Despite the member turnover this unit perform as a potent force.

The lyrical themes of Path carry over to Savage Gold as well. Unlike much typical black metal there's no mention of any cloven-hoofed worship, no admonishment of belief systems and no revelling in the glory of nature. Hill focuses more on darkness and death. His vocals may be beastly and muscularly dynamic but nearly always discernible.

His ruminations are deep and philosophical; the product of a mind that never idles. A general feeling is that of acceptance to death's inevitability, yet there is still a fear of succumbing to its clutches. Heavy topics sure, but as David Gold (Woods of Ypres), whatever-you-believe-in rest his soul, said, “Only death is real.”

Hill's thought provoking words are delicate on paper but betrayed by the fierce savagery with which he delivers them. Such existential musing must be accompanied by equally dark music and the multi-layered black metal Tombs excel at is plenty dark. Their sonic palette consists of shades of black but Savage Gold is painted with rich, emotional textures. Scorching black metal blasts play a big part but as much as tunnelling through the depths draws the listener in, it's the moments where Tombs slacken the pace and open up that really cut to the core. It's like seeing through the savagery and blind rage of a razorbacked beast to the tortured soul that lies within.

Hill's gruff and gravelly bellows and rasps express torment over painful melodies on “Seance”. The track works in an almost sludgy vibe but also some of the best windswept tremolos and punishing blasts on the album. Each shift in tempo and mood is met with the same sense of importance and awe.

That's just one example of how well Tombs are able to play with dynamics. Cascading melodies create atmosphere. Hypnotic brooding dulls the senses. Death metal sensibilities crush the skull. Pulverizing chaos, lumbering gait, serpentine movements and mesmerizing guitar interplay blur the edges of reality.

Savage Gold coils around the listener like the tempting serpent. The grip of the experimental blackness is inescapably deadly. It's a captivating album that beats you senseless one moment and carries you among the clouds the next. It's powerful, chilling, exhausting, encapsulating and irresistible. Among the wealth of excellent bands releasing albums this year, Tombs will once again shine amongst the brightest.

Matt Hinch

Band info: www.facebook.com/TombsBklyn
Label info: www.relapse.com

Matt Hinch lives an unassuming life on the backroads outside Forest Mills, Ontario, Canada. He packs in as much metal as he possible can amid factory work, raising three daughters with his wife and working the land. In addition to Scratch the Surface Matt also writes for Hellbound, Metal Bandcamp, About Heavy Metal and his own blog, Kingdom of Noise. Keep up with him on Twitter @KingdomofNoise.

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Since 2007 Tombs has putting out innovative tunes that fall somewhere between the coldness and abrasiveness of Scandinavian black-metal and the ferociousness and dissonance of U.S. hardcore, really making a difference on a often uninspired scene,

This year, the Brooklyn-based trio is issuing their sophomore record entitled “Paths of Totality”, which is quickly garnering rave reviews from all over the world.

Scratch the Surface caught up with Tombs guitarist and vocalist, Mike Hill, to find out more about their new record and their predilection for gothic music.

Alternately engaging and dissonant, "Path of Totality" straddles the line between nihilism and gloominess, incorporating traits of such disparate acts as Neurosis, Pink Floyd, Swans, Darkthrone, Fields of the Nephilim and Celtic Frost.

Can you tell me a little bit about the writing process for this new record?

Did you want to include more dynamism and new nuances on this album?

Some of the material was written immediately after we recorded “Winter Hours”, it’s been about a two year period of writing. It was good not being under the gun to squeeze out a new record, so we were able to really get deep into the writing process. In between tours, we wrote and, at least to me, there appeared to be different eras of material. For example, “Angel of Destruction” and “Passageways” were written around the same time. “Black Hole of Summer” and “Cold Dark Eyes” were written right before we left for the Wolves in the Throne Room / Pelican tour. Once we started thinking about recording a new record, we started producing demo recordings of the material, so we can refine the writing and begin pre-production. This period lasted for several months. I think, it’s an essential component for us because we like to get all of the experimentation done before we get into the studio.

Songs like "Vermillion", "Passageways", "Silent World" and "Black Heaven" exude a similar sinister and gloomy vibe to 80's gothic acts like Fields of the Nephilim and Bauhaus.

Were you influenced at all by gothic music when putting this album together?

I’m into “gothic” music in general. I would also add Joy Division and Sisters of Mercy to that list. I love the atmosphere of those bands; so dark. It fits so well with more extreme styles. I actually find more in common with bands like that as opposed to more “rock”-oriented bands.

While clearly more dynamic than previous record "Winter Hours", the new music is still dark and suffocating as usual. "Path to Totality" is garnering great reviews from the press, have the fans been responding to it as well?

We just wrapped up a short US tour. So far everyone has been extremely kind to us with respect to responses to the new material. We’ve been playing a lot of the material on tour for quite a while so not all of it is “new” to some people, nonetheless, we feel very fortunate that the reactions have been favorable.

David Alexandre

Read full interview here.

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Formed by underground veteran Mike Hill (whose past credits include Anodyne and Versoma) less than two years ago, US trio Tombs has already made a reputation for themselves as one of the most interesting and audacious acts of today’s post-metal/sludge scene. “Winter Hours” their Relapse Records debut will surely do nothing less than strengthen their rise in popularity as it will hardly disappoint anyone already familiar with their sonority.
The ten tracks on “Winter Hours” contain a much broader range of textures and pace than their self-titled debut, resulting in a more entertaining and eclectic sonority that owes as much to Neurosis-inspired hypnotic heaviness as to raw and filthy Norse black-metal. It’s exactly here that relies the most striking change to the band’s sound in the new album as there’s a wealthy dose of black-metal riffing permeating Hill’s guitar playing that gives “Winter Hours” a whole different and malicious atmosphere than Tombs has ever exhibited before. Second theme “Golden Eyes” is a shinning example of such heightened emphasis on black-metal with drummer Justin Ennis firing away furious blast-beats and Hill adopting a more caustic and faster riff-style that perfectly counterbalances his denser and Godflesh-influenced playing.
As stated before there’s a great diversity of style here and “Merrimack” my favourite song from the entire album sees Tombs leaning towards a more harmonious and hazed atmosphere, with a warm and haunting tone creeping in the guitars that brings memories of Justin Broadrick’s work with Jesu.
Another noticeable change is just how diverse and interesting the vocal performance of Hill has become. The inclusion of a deep, almost clean vocal-style close to Jaz Coleman from Killing Joke (clearly apparent on “Divide”), in addition to his more typical enraged roars and screams makes the whole experience a lot more interesting and compelling.
Tombs is definitely a band on the rise and although “Winter Hours” is not a perfect album it clearly proves that the best of them is yet to come. (7.5/10)

Band info: www.myspace.com/tombsbklyn
Label info: www.relapse.com

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Lavishly acclaimed by fans and media, “Winter Hours” the debut full-length record from Brooklyn-based trio Tombs is unquestionably one of the most gratifying listens you’ll experience during this extremely productive year of 2009.
Displaying a compelling amalgamation of a wide variety of sounds and textures, which makes it excessively hard to pigeonhole into a category, “Winter Hours” sees band founder and underground veteran Mike Hill reaching the zenith of his song writing abilities.
It seems like after all these years spent laboring in bands like Anodyne and Versoma, the guitarist and vocalist is finally getting the recognition he deserves. Are you surprised with all the amazing reactions garnered by “Winter Hours”?

“Yes, I’m extremely surprised that people are so receptive to the record. You never know if anyone is going to be into what you do so, we’ll all overjoyed by the amount of positive feedback we’ve gotten so far.”

As stated above, Tombs haven’t been thrown into a spotlight position overnight and anyone thinking that is either a fool or completely ignorant of Mike Hill’s background in noise-hardcore act Anodyne and hardcore-shoegazing project Versome. Throughout nearly two decades, Hill has played in those two underground bands, the criminally underrated Anodyne formed in Boston in the early 90’s and the short-lived project with members of Lickgoldensky, Versoma.
Although it’s perceptible to hear some influences from his earlier projects throughout “Winter Hours”, Tombs is supposed to be completely different proposition. What were your first intentions and what paths did you wanted to explore musically when you first started this new band?

“There was a kind of overlap between Tombs and Versoma. When Jamie told me he didn’t want to continue doing the band, I was working on material for Tombs less than a week later. Some of the early Tombs material has a similar feel to Versoma because a lot of the riffs were ideas that I had been working on for Versoma.
As the years go by, my involvement with music has become increasingly single-minded. I don’t really collaborate well with people so my goal with Tombs was to follow my own instincts and create something that is true to who I am.”

“Winter Hours” was met with tremendous enthusiasm from a vast number of old and recently converted followers, and to a certain extent their record label is partly responsible for pushing Tombs forward, it’s a fact that any release branded with the Relapse Records stamp is bound to turn quite a few of curious heads towards its direction. How did Tombs ended up signing with one of the most respectable and independent record labels of today and have you noticed a surge in interest in the band since that?

“I’ve know Gordon Conrad for almost a decade. The early Anodyne records were released on his label Escape Artist Records back in the late 90’s. We’ve maintained our relationship and I’ve more or less kept him in the loop with what I’ve been working on for the past several years. Tombs was preparing for a short tour after the release of the first EP; we had demoed some new material so I sent a copy down to the guys at Relapse who seemed interested in seeing us live. On tour, we played in Doylestown, PA which is nearby to the Relapse headquarters. Gordon came to the show and within a few months we were signing a contract.
Having Relapse on board has definitely helped raise the profile of the band. Being a music fan myself, I pay attention to labels and what new releases are coming out etc. So being a “New Relapse Band” probably put us on the radar of some folks.”

I’ve read somewhere that you’ve started writing this new album from scratch, without rehashing old ideas or sketches that might have been laying around. Did this type of “tabula rasa” method kind of give you the opportunity to explore new sounds and new possibilities for this new record?

“Definitely; at this point, I feel like Tombs has a distinctive identity and focus. On the first record I was wrestling with the ideas of being “melodic” or being “brutal.” The solution is to be both at the same time.”

It’s hard not to notice that you’ve incorporated a more black-metal riffing into the new songs and that your vocalizations are more diverse and dynamic than before. What made you go even further in this direction than in previous works?

“I’ve always been a huge black metal fan so some of the elements have crept into the songwriting. I’m really into bands like Leviathan, Lurker of Chalice and the more atmospheric artists. In a lot of ways, those bands have more similarities to My Bloody Valentine, Death in June than the typical corpse-paint bands. That’s not to say that I don’t love bands like Watain, Horna etc. The main element that I respond to in black metal is the emotional feel to the music and the central theme for Tombs is emotional expression therefore it makes sense that I steel from black metal.
As far as vocals go, I just want to continue to grow as a singer and push myself as much as possible. I just want to be versatile.”

With “Winter Hours” Tombs have obtained an excitingly dynamic and unique sonority, clearly drawing influences from a wide variety of genres and artists, that’s extremely hard to determine the best and most suitable description.
What is the most laughable and erratic description you ever saw used to define Tombs’ sound?

“I find it funny that people compare us to Mastodon. We’re not blues-based at all nor do we have any Thin Lizzy guitars riffing going on.
One clever writer for the Village Voice once described us as “Sky-Gazing-Life-Metal”; I guess that’s what you get when you pay somebody by the word.”

The lyrics on “Winter Hours” are no less important than the music and in fact I’ve read that the words for the songs come first and the music later, is that right? What ideas or messages are you conveying through the songs?

“The lyrics come first because they are derived from journal entries and notes that pre-date the composition of the songs. The lyrics for ‘Winter Hours’ dealt mainly with dear and anxiety mostly inspired by the last 8 years of living in a country being ground into the dirt by an idiot.”

Hill always was very active within the music scene and currently besides fronting his main band also maintains two side-projects going, namely King Generator and Vasilek, and a record label called Black Box Recordings. What’s happening right with these two projects and the label? Are there any bands out there that you want to record?

“King Generator is kind of on hold until me, Dave and Jamie can clear our schedules to record some material and play some shows. It’s hard because we all live in different cities and Jamie lives in the UK. When Tombs were touring in Europe, Jamie told me that he had some new riffs so I’m ready to roll when those guys are. Vasilek is still developing. I have about four songs in various stages of completion. My goal is to have something out this summer, maybe a cassette or some kind of limited release. I don’t imagine that there will be a huge demand for the Vasilek material.
The latest release on Black Box Recordings is the TOMBS / PLANKS split 12-in repress. The next release is the DEAD IN THE WOODS / DIET PILLS split 12-in. I’m working with this loose concept of doing a series of split 12-in with mp3 drop cards. My long term plan is to get away from cd’s all together.”

More info at: www.myspace.com/tombsbklyn

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