THE SYNN REPORT (PART 196): TODOMAL

 THE SYNN REPORT  2 Responses »
Jul 012026
 

Recommended for fans of: Moonspell, Anathema, Tiamat

I always try my best to ensure that each edition of The Synn Report is different from the last, in the sense that I never want to have too many Black Metal, or Death Metal, etc, entries in a row.

For example, so far this year we’ve had some maddeningly technical Death Metal brutality (Eximperitus), broodingly proggy Black Metal (Juodvarnis), genre-splicing Industrial Electro-Punk (Doodseskader), riff-heavy Death/Hardcore crossover (Black Breath), and gnarly blackened Sludge (Erdve), so today we’re continuing to keep things fresh by featuring the doomy romanticism of Spain’s Todomal (whose new album is out on Friday).

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AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): TODOMAL — “A GREATER GOOD”

 Album Reviews, Exceptions to the Rule, Premieres  2 Responses »
Nov 212023
 

The odds are high that once you’ve seen the painting above by Paloma Pájaro that adorns the cover of TodoMal‘s new album The Greater Good, you won’t forget it. The odds are also high that it may perplex you. The choosing of the art was obviously unconventional, but then again, so is the music.

The Greater Good is the second full-length by the TodoMal duo of Christopher B. Wildman and Javier Fernández, following the release of Ultracrepidarian in 2021. As they conceive it, the new album follows dark paths, “where doubts about what is right or wrong, what we do in this world to earn redemption, or why we have a nefarious tendency to destroy what we love are depicted against a smoldering forest”. “The journey continues,” as they say, “despite the obstacles”.

And so we have a Spanish band whose name means something like “all is evil” or “all is wrong” ambitiously seeking “The Greater Good”. They put a lot of thought and work into making it a continuation from their first album that would both expand their ambitions and manifest them more precisely, and today you’ll be able to hear every minute of what they achieved in advance of its release on November 24th by Ardua Music. Continue reading »