(written by Islander)
We have some history with the Kentucky band Tombstalker, starting with an article back in 2012 about metal in Kentucky (here), following that the next year (here) with a review of their self-titled EP, then including some commentary in 2015 about their fine and ferocious debut album Black Crusades, and then gleefully helping spread the word here in 2017 about a new Tombstalker EP named Chaotic Devotion.
Today we renew our support of Tombstalker’s music with the premiere of a song from their forthcoming second album, the aptly titled Chaos Monolith, which will be released in various formats on September 25th by Awakening Records, Adirondack Black Mass Records, and Bat Magick Records. The song you’re about to hear is “Iron Within Iron Without“.
Photography by Estill Robinson
The new Tombstalker album was created by a revised lineup that includes new member Clay Rice, who first appeared on Tombstalker’s Age of Darkness EP in 2023, as well as new drummer Dustin Boltjes, joining Tombstalker founders Chuck McIntyre and Anton Escobar.
As for the music on the new album, Awakening Records describes it as “a concentrated evolution of their established sound – combining d-beat intensity, blackened death metal aggression, and crushing old-school death metal weight”, with lyrical themes that “explore dystopian warfare, demonic imagery, technological decay, and the psychological collapse of civilization”.
For a song called “Iron Within Iron Without“, it seems fitting that Tombstalker let a heavily clanging bass introduce it. Those lonely tones slowly trace a very bleak melody, a melody the band pick up and carry forward with a distorted and deleterious guitar harmony that seems to wail as it quivers, and they accent the deepening melodic misery with bursts of electrifying drumwork.
But then the band shift gears. They follow that toxic-toned and near-hopeless overture with booming percussive cannonades; guitars that blare, slash, and squirm; and blast-furnace vocal intensity. The drums and bass kick into a thundering gallop; the riffing maniacally (but still kind of miserably) roils and pulsates; and the vocals monstrously growl and fanatically howl the lyrics.
The rhythm section continually change patterns, and the guitars do too, creating swirling highlights of ecstasy and feverish swarms of derangement. The music both pumps like giant pistons and levitates like sorcerers. The grooves are compulsive, the shapeshifting melodies are head-hooking, the vocals are frightening, and the song ends on an emotional high note that’s quite a change from how it begins.
What a welcome return this is!
TOMBSTALKER is:
Conqueror Horus: Vocals, Guitars
Gruftspüre: Guitars
Defiler: Bass
Storm Bolter: Drums, Synths, Cinematics
Chaos Monolith was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Jason Groves at Sneak Attack Studios. The stunning cover art is the recognizable work of Ola Larsson, and the album includes interior illustration by Anton Escobar.
Awakening Records will release Chaos Monolith in a jewelcase CD edition with a 16-page booklet, as well as digitally. Find pre-orders for those via the links below. Adirondack Black Mass Records will handle the vinyl release, and Bat Magick Records will handle the cassette release.
After the links we’ve also included a stream of the album’s first single, “Unto the Anvil of War“. And we’ll add that Tombstalker will be performing at Mass Destruction Metal Fest, which will take place in Atlanta on November 6 and 7. Tombstalker opens the second day’s fantastic lineup, which also includes Atheist, Lividity, Artificial Brain, Mortiferum, Cloak, Trhä, and Druid Lord. (Find tickets here.)
PRE-ORDER:
CD: https://awakeningrecordscn.bigcartel.com/product/tombstalker-chaos-monolith-cd
Digital: https://awakeningrecordscn.bandcamp.com/album/chaos-monolith
Vinyl: https://adirondack-black-mass.myshopify.com/products/tombstalker-chaos-monolith-lp-abm-85
FOLLOW:
https://www.facebook.com/tombstalkerband
https://www.instagram.com/tombstalker
https://www.facebook.com/awakeningrecordscn
https://www.instagram.com/awakeningrecordscn