#12: Tombs - Path of Totality

At this point, I am starting to get burnt out trying to find ways to describe why I liked an album. And really, with an album like Path of Totality (Relapse) I shouldn't have to explain myself. But I have nothing better to do at the moment so I will anyway. Tombs have most often been described as a Black Metal band but that really isn't accurate enough. Path of Totality is more than that. It brings together Black Metal, Doom and Sludge in a cohesive whole. It's more than the sum of its parts. It doesn't sound contrived or forced in any way. It's definitely a very dark album. I don't feel any colours when I hear it. Deep textures and shading paint a bleak picture of  post-apocalyptic urban devastation. (Not sure if that follows what the lyrics are saying. We've talk about my lyrical shortcomings before.) Mike Hill's brusque vocals maintain authority over the survivors but are still multi-dimensional and human. I have a feeling this Path of Totality is a much more intelligent road that I am able to comprehend by more or less scratching the surface as I have. For an album that I have given such high praise to (as well as countless other metal opinion outlets) I should just buy the LP already. Go deeper. Absorb the essence. At least I'd know I was getting my money's worth. Just so long as I don't go down that other Path of Totality released in 2011.

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I really need to reload my iPod.

After listening to Converge, I was kinda stuck on what to listen to next. There was a lot of stuff I just had to interest in and a bunch of stuff I wanted to hear but weren't on there (Baroness, BDM, Cannibal Corpse..). And some stuff that I have downloaded but haven't loaded into iTunes yet (Nile, Hatebreed). So I had to settle.

General Surgery - Corpus In Extremis: Analyzing Necrotism: It's death metal so it's automatically decent. It's not tech-death or (bad) deathcore, so that's 2 more "pros". Some nice groove going on, another "pro". But on the "con" side, it's really nothing special. Predictable even. I found myself tapping out the riffs with my feet even though I'd never heard the song before. Plus, I never once felt the urge to circle-headbang. Not a good sign. It's not bad per se, just kind of generic.

Forsaken - After the Fall: The intro was good. Women screaming for their lives, mob noise, and what I assume was werewolves snarling and growling. It put a cool visual in my head. Townsfolk offering virgins in sacrifice to the lycanthropes. Cool. But, that "cool" ended when the songs started. Pretty good tone. And the riffs and stuff weren't really bad either but the singer's voice just rubbed me the wrong way. It sounded too second-rate 80's for me. So, less than 2 tracks in, NEXT. I don't have time to listen to something I know I don't like.

Tombs - Winter Hours: This one is really hard to describe. Put them on a tour with Kylesa, Withered, (heavy) Neurosis, and early Baroness and they'd fit right in.