(written by Islander)
On May 29th of this year Cursed Monk Records released Karst, the powerful second album from the Irish sludge metal band Tooms. Leading up to the release we premiered a song from it named “Lowlander“. In that context, we described the music as “dismal and disconcerting,” but “galvanic as well as distressing, intriguing as well as traumatic”.
As that song demonstrates, and as Tooms repeatedly demonstrate over the course of Karst, their music hits with heavyweight force and also explodes in episodes of searing intensity and battering fury.
Today we have a startling reminder of all that, and one that hopefully will seize the attention of people who may have overlooked Karst so far. It is an attention-seizing video for what Tooms call the darkest song they’ve ever written — “Whitethorn“.
In the context of that previous premiere we couldn’t help but remark about the unusual nature of the album’s cover art, and wondered how it connected to the music’s gritty and often grievous vibrancy. More recently we found an explanation in an essay by the band available at this location.
As they explain there, it was conceived as a way of conveying “the rugged West [of Ireland], the life, death and rebirth that we’re all surrounded by”, and the idea that “nothing is permanent”. They used a stone vase to represent the land, and an arrangement of wildflowers, “native wildflowers some living some dying, some dead”.
The Gorse/Furze laid on either side of the stone plinth, and the Mayflower of the Whitethorn tree sticking out on top of the arrangement, represent the Spring, the new life, the change of season, new beginnings. Surrounded by dying Buttercups, Bluebells & Ferns to represent the shedding of the old life.
They also used a velvet backdrop, “a flat shadow-less black background, to give the feeling that the flower arrangement exists in a void”.
We also found the band’s track-by-track discussion of all the songs on Karst. Here’s most of what they said about the song that’s the subject of today’s video premiere:
“Whitethorn” is easily the darkest song we have ever written. It deals with some heavy themes: losing loved ones to suicide, domestic abuse, loosing a child, and betrayal. It’s about all the different ways these things break one’s heart and soul. But also, and more importantly, it’s about overcoming those struggles, and making it out the other end a stronger, better person.
“We wanted to write something more serious, and boy, did we. Instead of writing joke lyrics that mean nothing, I looked inward, used the negative shit life can throw at you as fuel, to get real, raw vocal takes. This applies in the studio, or performance after performance in a live environment. When one draws from real lived experience, it’s easier (well, harder actually) to get authentic emotion across, and I think purging all that negative shit to create something positive like music or art is the best way to deal with it. TOOMS is therapy at times.
“Whitethorn” is constructed from multiple changing motifs that Tooms lay out, intertwine, and return to. Tempos change, riffs change, moods change, the intensity changes and manifests in different ways.
The song opens slowly, with a heart-aching guitar harmony rendered in abrading tones. The following bridge feels like someone feverishly running an iron file across your exposed skull, and that becomes the basis for the next riff, backed by pounding beats and fronted by raw howls.
Furious outbursts of blackened fretwork ensue, along with adaptations of the despairing opening melody, scalding screams, iron-shod bass-lines, doses of brutish battering-ram punchiness, incidents of squirming and shrieking guitar misery, and raging vocal tirades (still bloody raw).
As noted, the pacing, the patterns, and the moods change a lot, but the song will still probably sink its roots into your head, as it did mine.
Quite obviously, a tremendous amount of thought and work went into the making of the video. Much of it is based on the band’s performance of the song, filmed from a multitude of viewpoints, creatively edited, and loaded with changing visual effects — but also interspersed with images from nature that connect the video to some of what we discussed above concerning the cover art for Karst. It matches up very well with the music.
TOOMS Line-up:
Anto Donnellan – Bass
Kieran Grace – Drums/Vocals
Alex Hölzinger – Guitars/Vocals
Tooms recorded Karst with long-time collaborator Chris Quigley at The Meadow Studios. The album was mixed by Matt Bayles (Isis, Mastodon, The Sword, etc) and masteried by Chris Fielding (Conan, Darkest Era, Hooded Menace, etc).
Karst is available from Cursed Monk on Double LP and Digital formats. They recommend it for fans of Mastodon, Inter Arma, Baroness, and Kylesa. Karst is also out on CD via Road To Masochist, and on Cassette from Fiadh Productions. For more info and to pick up the album in your preferred format, check the links below.
ORDER:
https://cursedmonk.bandcamp.com/album/karst
https://roadtomasochist.co.uk/
https://fiadh.bandcamp.com/album/karst
TOOMS:
https://www.facebook.com/TOOMSband/
https://tooms.bandcamp.com/