Planetary Clairvoyance

If there are two things I pride myself on, they’re being fashionably late and keeping my promises. Almost a month ago, I covered Tomb Mold’s Aperture of Body demo, and in that review I vouched that I’d also be covering their 2019 effort Planetary Clairvoyance. Seeing as I’m a man of my word, I finally got around to doing so, as you can probably tell by the fact that you’re reading this here text. So without further ado, let’s get right to it.

Now the first and most important thing to note about this project is its sound and general aesthetics. While they might not appear as such, Tomb Mold does evolve and shift between albums, and their discography as a result tends to be much more varied than what the average OSDM band might offer. Things are somewhat different this time around though. The band decided to shift to a more straightforward caverndeath sound, which might be a turn off to anyone who was fond of the mid-tempo riffy stuff from their previous two releases, or outright sick of the sound. For better or worse, your enjoyment of this work hinges entirely on your fondness or frustration with the Incantation craze that’s been going on. Regardless, I find myself enjoying this for two very simple reasons: first off, I’m a sucker for caverndeath, and secondly, the songwriting is top notch.

Every single song here has more than its fair share of memorable moments, to the point where bringing up every single one would lead to a rather boring track-by-track review. Whether it’s riffs, leads, or vocal lines, there’s no shortage of things that can grab your ear and stick with you long after your first listen. Let’s take for example the openings to “Infinite Resurrection” and “Accelerative Phenomenae”. Both kick things off with some of the absolute strongest riffs here, the former sporting an up-tempo crushing headbanger and the latter being an unhinged explosion of energy. To put this into perspective, these songs have been stuck in my head since 2019, even without me revisiting this album super often, just a couple of times every few months or so. It’s moments like these that are the mark of excellent musicians who know how to compose a song that will stick with you long after you first hear it.

As for the previously mentioned leads, they’ve been one of the things I enjoy the most about Tomb Mold’s music, much to my surprise. They’re wild and “deathy”, but they always maintain a certain tunefulness to them, resulting in solos that don’t just add more flavour to the songs they’re in, but also manage to stand on their own and make a case for themselves. Whether it’s the melting soloing on the quasi-title track, or the slow and dramatic builds on “Heat Death”, there’s plenty of expertly placed guitar lines that can catch your ear, and I can’t say I’ve found a point during which I thought “okay, this is neat but can we get back to the riffs?”. Okay, maybe there was one point with “Phosphorene Ultimate”, which was a rather redundant interlude that threw a spanner in the works, but other than that things constantly moved forward and I was always looking forward to the next transition.

My praises extend to the production, another aspect the band has handled perfectly. It’s cavernous, but the atmosphere doesn’t come at the expense of the music, resulting in a crisp, but not sterile sound that allows one to discern the instruments themselves. The fibrous guitars are obviously the main star of the show, delivering riffs with great force, being propped up by a grumbling bass that roars alongside them and doesn’t stay content with being in the background. As for vocalist and drummer Max Klebanoff, his presence on both fronts is handled with care, his drumming, while more straightforward than before, is still present and drives the songs forward, and his breathy growl is omnipresent without taking centre stage. I know I get hung up on the production a lot in my reviews, but it can add so much to the music in some cases, and this is one of those.

Truth be told, despite how much I’ve praised Planetary Clairvoyance, I’ve gotten sick of death metal. Shocking, I know. It’s not like I’ve spent the past 2,5 years doing a deep dive on the genre listening to both the good and mediocre stuff, old and modern. Despite that though, I inexplicably find myself returning to Tomb Mold. Is it the riffs, is it the fact that they’re the band that kicked off my death metal addiction to begin with? I’d be lying if I said I had a concrete answer for that. What I do know for sure though is that their music is something special, and they’ll always be among the bands I’ll revisit, even if I completely fall out of love with the subgenre.

Highlights: Infinite Resurrection, Accelerative Phenomenae, Heat Death

Canadian death metal… perhaps more well-known for their dazzling technical death metal acts since the 90s starting with Martyr, Quo Vadis and others, and leaking into the modern day with countless stalwarts such as Archspire, Beyond Creation, First Fragment, etc… well, as it turns out, the Canadians also produce some quality "primitive" death metal, spearheaded by the underground sensation that is Tomb Mold. This is their third album in as many years, and while I haven't completely familiarized myself with their previous two outputs, "Planetary Clairvoyance" is an Earth-shattering display of old school death metal with some modern flair.

Tomb Mold is certainly primitive - the main makeup of the music consists of putrid riffs that invoke visions of death and morbidity, pummeling the listener track, after track, after track. The riffs mainly feel influenced by bands such as the legendary Incantation, but also some Demilich oddities thrown in along with a hint of golden era Autopsy, and the impeccable Bolt Thrower. A throwback for sure, but Tomb Mold is refreshing enough to not feel like just another stale worship band.

Despite its cavernous display, there's actually a lot of cool melodies played on this album. Brutal yet engaging leads are sprinkled throughout most of the tracks which add an extra layer of depth and emotion to the music instead of just feeling like a wall of riffs with no substance to back up their aggression. It gives it that cosmic feel that they were trying to go for with the lyrics, album cover and overall theme of the record. Space is certainly a close companion of death metal thematics, but Tomb Mold actually make you feel like you're being warped into a black hole, lost somewhere in the infinite crevices of space.

There isn't too much to say about Tomb Mold that hasn't been said already… they certainly know what they're doing and have extensive knowledge of their chosen subgenre of metal, and it shows on this album here. It's heavy, it's engaging and it remains fun while continuing to keep that grit that we all know and love from death metal. Now, beg… beg for your pitiful life to be spared in the face of our inevitable heat death.

This is an album from a band on the rise. Their first album Primordial Malignity was solid, their debut (Manor of Infinite Forms) was even better (my third favorite release from last year), and this one is a worthy successor. I don't quite feel I can say it's better than Manor, but it's just as good. By the way, all three releases were within 3 years. A release a year is brutal, but they're young enough to power through for now. Tomb Mold, if you're listening, please don't burn yourselves out! Unless you want to tour the West coast!

The guitar tones are incredible, as usual. Meaty, distinguishable, with the perfect amount of slop. They have a some echo which leans it into the cavernous side of things. The leads are tasty and adding to the extraterrestrial vibe. Listen to the lead that dreams of a solo at 2:27 on Cerulean Salvation and the outro part of the solo at 6:10 on "Accelerative Phenomonae". The latter song is my favorite overall for guitar. Pummeling low end, tasty solo, and multiple ear worms. Speaking of ear worms, this album is loaded with hooks galore. The opening guitar sections on "Cerulean Salvation", "Heat Death" (possibly my favorite riff and solo on the whole album), 0:24 on"Planetary Clairvoyance", and "Beg for Life" to name a few. The latter is so catchy and even has melodic elements to it. There are some leads that sound like an alien transmission, which helps this albums theme of space hit home. There's actually something pretty close to that later on in "Phosphorene Ultimate".

It is becoming more common to have the lead singer also be the drummer. The rather similar Fetid from Seattle, WA has their drummer as lead vocalist. Absu and Nekrodrunkz do the same. I fully respect when drummers do this. It fairly challenging and is best when the listener has no idea. Meaning the drums don't immediately get dumb as soon as the vocals start. There is a little bit of that here, but is only noticeable once you know that the drummer is singing. "Heat Death" is a more obvious example of this, but it's subtle unless you're looking for it. Either way, incredible respect for the musician to do so.

Once again, Tomb Mold bring us into their dis-formed world of sentient microorganisms. And Dark Souls. This album feels the natural progression from their previous two, thematically. The first bringing horror on a microscopic level and madness. The second expanding their colony of disgust into a cavernous world all their own. Now we’re in space spreading the planet-stealing entities into an interstellar offense. The music follows suit, with space transmissions, some effects that sound broadcasted from a black hole. The sound here is much more expansive and large, filling the air with a more grandiose feel. Some will not like the slight turn from throwback cavernous death metal but I’m glad they didn’t turn into the next Dead Congregation by finding their hole and burying themselves in it. They’re too young! There is still that production element but less echo on everything. There's some slop left in from the playing, but this helps the griminess. This isn't Obscura's brand of interstellar musings. Side note: 4:41 on "Accelerative Phenomonae" is so much like Aborted. I hope someone else caught the similarities. An homage?

I’m excited for the future of this band so much and all they have to offer. Three amazing albums in three years with a sense of change with each. They can’t keep this release schedule up forever and I don’t want them to run out of ideas too soon. Fatigue becoming a problem for me with some bands aggressive releasing. Dez Fafara from the terrible Devildriver would have every band release yearly to “keep the scene alive”. How about you just release better albums instead of more albums? Tomb Mold might be able to pull that off, but not Devildriver…

Favorite tracks:
-Planetary Clairvoyance
-Accelerative Phenomenae
-Cerulean Salvation
-Beg for Life

Technical skill: 83% Originality: 84% Song writing: 93% Production: 87%

These days, there’s not a whole lot of new death metal that seems genuinely threatening. More intense than anything in the mainstream, sure, but people who’ve been regularly exposing themselves to this sort of thing for years are often hard-pressed to find recent death metal releases that seem truly monstrous. Planetary Clairvoyance, the latest from young Toronto outfit Tomb Mold, is one such album. The band’s third full-length is a dense, molten slab of intensity boasting a smoky, brimstone-infused flavor and a violent but carefully calculated malevolence that any fan of Incantation should be more than happy to welcome with open arms.

This is Tomb Mold’s third album since the band was formed in 2015. While the pace of their output has been quick, they have not been cutting corners in their mad dash to release three full-lengths in as many years. Planetary Clairvoyance is a thoughtfully crafted album, never relying simply on speed or brutality to make its point. While there are fast riffs and blastbeats aplenty, Tomb Mold enriches the album’s sound with the occasional sliver of death doom. Though there are a lot of these switches from fast, driving death metal to slower chord progressions, and sometimes to sections that feature a guitar riffing independently of other instruments, it never seems to let up in intensity, except for the occasional atmospheric moments. Planetary Clairvoyance smoothly shifts from one idea to the next and provides a lot of subtle variations on its musical themes so that you might not recognize at first how much change is packed into the album. While its mood is consistently oppressive and frightening, due in no small part to the guitars’ murky yet massive distortion, there are a lot of standout moments you won’t be forgetting any time soon, from a slow, dramatic portion of ‘Infinite Resurrection’ that repeatedly slams you into the ground to an odd, almost tribal, show of percussion in the second half of “Accelerative Phenomenae” and the slow, destructive stomp of “Heat Death.” The guitar solos are commendable as well. They aren’t particularly fast or flashy but they have a smooth, emotive character not unlike the ones Chuck Schuldiner performed during the progressive phase of his career but somehow manage not to detract from the album’s overall menacing aura.

Further compounding the album’s dark and crushingly heavy tone is the production. The guitars are given a lot of power in the studio, augmenting the riffs with a level of distortion as thick and meaty as a sub from a New York deli. Thankfully, this does not mean the bass is lost in the shuffle. Instead, the basslines are frequently audible, providing a more subtle sort of menace as they bounce along. Max Klebanoff’s gutturals, meanwhile, are pushed back a bit, making their presence a bit more subtle than expected, effectively allowing them to meld with the instruments to create a production aesthetic that’s somewhat murky but still incredibly muscular.

While this album’s vicious riffing goes a long way toward establishing its sinister personality, there are a lot of brilliant atmospherics that elicit plenty of dread when their time comes. The 3-minute cut “Phosphorene Ultimate” is dedicated entirely to molding a sound collage out of creepy, droning guitars and the sounds you’d hear while wandering through the halls of a derelict spaceship (including scrambled and unintelligible radio transmissions). Effective ambient sections like the sparse, eerie guitar lines in album opener “Beg For Life” and something that sounds like a field recording from a jungle on another planet that closes out “Heat Death” (and the album) are spread conservatively throughout and provide the occasional break from the intensity while ensuring that a listener always feels some sense of tension.

Planetary Clairvoyance is an album that strikes the right balance immediately and never loses its way. Though Tomb Mold gives their ideas plenty of room to breathe, there’s more than enough change from one moment to the next to provide a sense of growth and progression. The album may sound monotonous at first because of how consistently colossal and threatening its tone is but those paying attention will recognize that Planetary Clairvoyance is a journey through an ever-changing landscape of expertly-realized and ferocious songcraft.

Originally written for the Metal Observer

Death metal is about progression. From "Seven Churches" onward, this genre pushed the boundaries of extremity, heaviness, composition and musicianship (often simultaneously). The progression on “Planetary Clairvoyance" comes through assimilation. Tomb Mold have absorbed everything good about death metal from the last thirty years. This record combines the heaviness of old Scandinavian records like "Into the Grave" and "Slumber of Sullen Eyes", with the progressive death metal of Florida records like "Human" and "Focus".

The opening track “Beg For Life” is a great example of how the band mined classic death metal for ideas. The song builds with some Finnish-style Demigod/Abhorrence tremolo riffs before switching to a mid-paced riff after two minutes, locking into a headbanging moment a minute later. A few more adjustments before a ‘proggy’ section at 3:29 (a Cynic riff), before dropping an acoustic break into the middle of the song. The growling vocals and pounding drums ride over the acoustic guitar before the distortion kicks back in. The final third involves some well-placed blasting, some more Demigod-ish riffs and a solo. Progression, flow, heaviness. This is what death metal should sound like.

Of the other songs, the title track is the fastest, with speed passages that keep the listener on edge. The riff after the dead-stop is incredible. “Accelerative Phenomenae” is the darkest and most ‘Finnish’ sounding song, probably my favourite on the album. “Infinite Resurrection” is the most immediate, maybe the most complex and the one I would recommend hearing first. “Cerulean Salvation” is the most old school song (re-appropriating the opening riff from “Open Casket” in the process). “Heat Death” is an almost instrumental riff-fest and the best example of the band's musicianship. It indicates the possible direction Tomb Mold might go in future. The ambient track (“Phospherene Ultimate”) transports the listener into an alien realm such as the one depicted on the album cover. There is no wasted space here.

This album also demonstrates the importance of mid-paced grooves in death metal. There is a knack to this. Any bunch of idiots can pick up some instruments and play ultra slow passages and throw in some fast blasting sections, but good death metal bands exploit the potential for heaviness in the mid-pace. Tomb Mold embody these sections, shifting through the middle gears and using these passages as a basis for their solos. One criticism I might make is that Tomb Mold usually play their riffs four times before switching. This becomes predictable after a while, and you might find yourself predicting each riff transition after four repetitions. Some variance of this would generate more urgency and energy. This is something that band could improve on in future.

I could nitpick about the production. This record is best appreciated when played loud, losing a disproportionate amount of impact at lower volumes. Don’t get me wrong, the overall sound is wonderful and organic and the drums sound great. Still, I wonder whether a little more grit and nastiness in the guitar department might help. This might push it closer to the sound achieved on “Into the Grave” or (for a modern example) “Punishment in Flesh” by Innumerable Forms. This minor point is barely worth mentioning, just turn the volume up and enjoy.

A bestial roar echoes from the charnel void of space… planets come alive and devour each other with incomprehensible ferocity… mutated hybrids beings are resurrected to fight in endless wars…. Tomb Mold are back, and they’ve ratcheted the terror up to astronomical levels. Only 13 months since the release of their critically acclaimed breakout album (and first album as a full lineup rather than as a studio project) Manor of Infinite Forms, Tomb Mold have kept up the momentum with Planetary Clairvoyance, a monumental entry into the canon of cosmic horror.

Tomb Mold is a Toronto death metal band that has ridden a wave of old-school revivalism to unexpected stardom. Originally conceived of as a studio project composed of Max Klebanoff on drums and vocals and Derrick Vella on bass and guitars, the band has since expanded to a full lineup with Steve Musgrave taking over bass and Payson Power on guitar. They also achieved a measure of notoriety for lyrical themes concerning the Lovecraftian horror of the Bloodborne (in which Tomb Mold is a crafting item) and Dark Souls video game franchises.

Planetary Clairvoyance brings a more diverse array of genre influences to the table than did Manor—it is more technical, melodic, progressive, and thematically cohesive, all without sacrificing their characteristically organic timbre. You know what Tomb Mold sounds like, and the production on this album is no different. Rest assured, old school death metal fans, Planetary Clairvoyance gives up none of the sound of classic death metal in its pursuit of more complex songwriting—and those songs are fantastic. Above all, they are concise, never overstaying their welcome. The album is pared down to only six songs and an interlude, each track making a distinct case for inclusion on the album by working as its own self-contained multi-stage universe. Occasionally, the riffs will fall into a familiar formula of seven chugging bars repeated before a flourish on the eighth, but the songs tend to morph with such propulsive force that you aren’t likely to feel stuck in one place too long. An exception to this is in the closing minutes of “Cerulean Salvation”, where a towering death/doom riff repeats until the song fades to black. For the first little while, it’s bludgeoning, but after a few minutes, it does lose my attention. That said, repetition is the exception rather than the rule, and this is proven right off the bat with the prog-tinged opener, “Beg for Life”.

The track begins with the vastness of space: skittering alien sounds tickle the edges of a cavernous ambiance before a tremolo guitar lead emerges from the background. With a rush of cymbals, chugging chords, and double kick drums, the song shifts into gear, delivering a winning mid-tempo death metal riff. Intensity builds as the tempo increases, the vocals become more insistent, blast beats are incorporated, and the heavy riffs gain a groovy start-stop quality. Suddenly, the instrumentation falls away, revealing a tasteful acoustic guitar line. Acoustic interludes can feel like an unnecessary progressive cliché, but this one is a pivotal moment. The song builds naturally back to death metal, with drums and vocals returning first to join the guitar, before smoothly transitioning to a chugging, furious, blast-beating climax. As a mission statement, “Beg for Life” is perfect: it lays out everything that Planetary Clairvoyance will be and gets your blood rushing dangerously fast.

The intricacies of “Beg for Life” are indicative of Tomb Mold’s new approach to songwriting: a focus on dynamics. The songs maintain constant intensity but still manage an ebb and flow of energy, each building tension to an initial peak before easing off the gas, letting you breathe, then building you even higher than before. On the second track, “Planetary Clairvoyance (They Grow Inside Pt. II)” (which transitions seamlessly out of “Beg for Life”), classic death metal riffing opens the song, but infectious thrash and vicious grind build it to the point of uncontrolled grooving madness. Then, the instrumentation abruptly disappears, leaving seconds of silence before a crushing mosh-worthy riff slams its way into existence and all hell breaks loose (Toronto music venues are about to suffer some serious structural damage). This is easily my favourite moment on the album, and seeing it recreated live collapsed my vertebrae like a Jenga tower.

“Phosphorene Ultimate” gives us a break after the first two tracks, providing more of the astral ambiance that began the album, this time joined by staticky solar wind, ethereal keys, and the faintest corrupted traces of a signal lost in space. The interlude is pleasant, but I question its placement on the album. Rather than easing momentum, it kills some of the grandeur that the first two tracks built and the transition to the leaden riffs that begin “Infinite Resurrection” is too jarring. The title track could have led directly into “Infinite Resurrection”, and the interlude could have served to separate the two sides of the album, which would have made narrative sense given that they were written by different band members.

In a Kerrang! interview, guitarist Derrick Vella spoke on the lyrical themes: “Side A is about a breakup. I broke up with my partner of five and a half years last year. It’s all under this weird guise of planets swallowing themselves whole, passage to spirit worlds, and being reborn. Yet, it’s all about leaving someone or going through life changes.” Drummer and vocalist Max Klebanoff said of the latter half: “Side B of the record represents the final push towards a dolorous end. A vast cosmic mass or space pulls apart, reducing you to your final ashen form to then even further disintegrate into the celestial ether. Most of my lyrics… focus [on] the collapse of one’s corporeal form and complete disintegration of somatic and cognitive capabilities.” Through visual language of science fiction, Tomb Mold plumbs deeper emotional themes, which, while not strictly necessary in death metal, adds another layer for the listener to uncover and connect with.

“Infinite Resurrection” and “Accelerative Phenomenae” are more traditional death metal cuts. The former varies in tempo and time signature constantly, counterposing pummelling brutal death with grooving syncopated rhythms and a slow midsection that provides room for one of the most memorably triumphal guitar solos on the album. Its penultimate section is off-kilter and buffeting, even mathy.

The two final tracks form an oppressively heavy finale. As I mentioned previously, “Cerulean Salvation” draws on death/doom, decelerating to a sluggish and somewhat unexciting end. The drums provide some variation to the repetitive riffing, moving from a double-kick style at the midpoint of the song to an almost tribal beat by the end. “Heat Death”, however, is a major highlight that incorporates the death/doom much more effectively. For the entire first half of the song, an angular riff builds in intensity, a climactic guitar solo taking the place of vocal duties before Max Klebanoff’s familiar roar makes its first appearance at the three-minute mark. After this point, the song slows to a crushing pace. This time, it’s not a slow decay, but a build, with the vocals and instruments becoming more and more insistent, intense, and emotionally striking.

This is an exceedingly strong project, and a clear show of artistic growth (mutation?) for Tomb Mold. It lifts my heart to see a band from Toronto stake a place in the cold universe of death metal, and to do it with not just virtuosic execution, but with boundless creativity. It’s miraculous for a band this young to produce an album this close to perfect, but it still feels like they have an endless cosmos to expand into. Instant classic.

Favourite Tracks:
Beg for Life
Planetary Clairvoyance (They Grow Inside Pt. II)
Heat Death

Least Favourite Tracks:
Phosphorene Ultimate
Cerulean Salvation

Originally published in wrench zine https://www.facebook.com/wrenchzine/