By: Mark Ambrose
Album Type: EP
Date Released: 5/06/2018
Label: Born Dead Records
In six blistering tracks, they drag listeners
through a gallery of suffering and malignancy that will still spur on circle
pits for years to come. It’s short,
nasty, and brutal. Posers need not
apply.
“Reflection
of the Mistake” 7”//DD
track listing
1. Eroded
2. Reality Plague
3. Bronze Bull
4. Human Trophy
5. Summary Execution
6. You’ve Learned Nothing
The Review:
I obsess a lot about the aesthetics of this
sprawling genre. Whether its Ed Repka
art, or the nightmarish live getups of bands like Portal,
or lyrics that can denounce consumerism, hypocrisy, evoke hellscapes or Tolkienesque
battles, there is a massive palette that metal artists of all media can delve
into. But there’s no denying that those
early, stomach churning visuals get a lot of us hooked. Whether it was the anatomical cut and paste
collages of Carcass, the tortured souls on Slayer’s early masterpieces, or the enigmatic, spooky woman
sitting on Black Sabbath’s eponymous debut, some styles
and sights are a quick shorthand for sonic nightmares. When you get grimy black and white cover art,
an EP title that namechecks one of Death’s best tracks, a
runtime under nine minutes, and lyrics like “Echo
chamber existence / Attention span eradicated / Self-indulgence plagues your
head / Barricaded ego hides,” you hope to hell you’re in for some
nihilistic deathgrind. And the three-man
wrecking unit of Tomb Warden do not disappoint on
their first proper solo release. After a
demo and promising split releases, “Reflection
of the Mistake” is one brief slab of filth that could elevate this Virginia
trio to a new level.
With all my guitar, riff, and rhythm
obsessions, I can sometimes give vocalists short shrift, but John Toth does one
hell of a job cementing a signature presence on Tomb Warden’s
proper debut. His guttural, ogre in a
bottomless chasm sound is succinct and (when you’re tracking with a lyric sheet
like me) actually discernable. This
isn’t a mash of grunts and shrieks, but well-thought and elucidated visions of
poetic doom. Tracks like “Bronze Bull” and “Human Trophy” invoke the death images of early grind masters – charred
bones, war trenches, inhuman brutality eclipsing any semblance of social
niceties. But there’s brains to the
caveman brawn as well, with “Eroded”
sparking the warning bells of that same gradual degradation of human sympathies
and “Reality Plague” pointing the
finger at the virtue signaling and empty gestures that pass for discourse in
dumbed down modern “intellectual” interactions.
Drummer Paul Lutostanski counters Toth with some higher end shrieks that
makes for a solid dynamic back and forth throughout the record.
Lutostanski’s rhythmic prowess is spot-on,
balancing punky gallops, classic blasts, and on-a-dime tempo changes
effortlessly. Guitarist AND bassist
Tommy Wall (I’m wondering how that works live) has his instruments nailed when
it comes to no frills, monster riffing.
The tone is right, the attack is mean, and his pick hand is mighty and
precise. Meanwhile, the little technical
flourishes – the slides down the guitar neck on “Bronze Bull”, the tremolo work on “Summary Execution”, the blast beat chaos on “You’ve Learned Nothing” – are so subtle that it may take a few
listens to really catch just how fucking WELL these guys do this. I’m into double digit replays of this mean
little slab of grind and I’m still finding new riffs, new vocal dynamics, new
rhythmic flourishes. In six blistering
tracks, they drag listeners through a gallery of suffering and malignancy that
will still spur on circle pits for years to come. It’s short, nasty, and brutal. Posers need not apply.
