Last Wednesday's T.O.M.B. set leaves even a verbose guy like myself somewhat at a loss for adjectives. What T.O.M.B. did was execute a through-composed, thoughtfully executed set, of album-like proportions and pacing. Sonically, just to entice you, I could make comparisons to TG's Mission of Dead Souls, were it laid atop some of the more well-orchestrated doom metal of the day—are you effectively grabbed?
T.O.M.B. are all over the map in their releases, both sonically and geographically (with global participants, albeit with a 3-man group of core collaborators), though the common thread in their works is an absolute envelopment in the darkest forces available, both via location recordings, and by way of the players' own emotional catharsis and fearless channeling.
The man with the contact mic'd tombstone (that which one would be ill advised to touch) sits on his knees on the floor, a mad conductor, orchestrating the darkness, while the synthesist/bassist stands, ever attentive, listening and shaping the mass with his own subtle hand suggestions. The vocalist sits, then stands, absorbed in his mic, looking cornered and tortured. The drummer (T.O.M.B. was a four-piece for this session) quite expertly held the madness together, driving hard where appropriate, and casting ashes where funerary dust was called for. It is to my deep regret that I did not have a videographer, or live video feed on hand, to capture the sights as well as the sounds of T.O.M.B.—though it no doubt would never have been the same with any bright lights a-shinin'.
Eternal thanks to Glenn L for mastering the most challenging Castle setup yet, and producing a brilliantly mixed recording, worthy of the very performance itself, and also to Tracy, for pulling something compelling out of the black muck of my iPhone photograph. My enormous gratitude to T.O.M.B.
Comments