ALBUM REVIEW: Rot Stink Rip – Tombstoner
With an EP and a debut album under their belts, TOMBSTONER are back with their own brand of disgusting death metal with sophomore effort Rot Stink Rip. A filthy blend of old school death metal stylings, thrash and grindcore make up the DNA of the groove-laden TOMBSTONER sound. The four-piece made a definite mark for themselves with 2021’s Victims Of Vile Torture and Rot Stink Rip has all the hallmarks of a classic extreme metal album. Things are going to get very nasty.
The album opens with a deep, brooding introduction courtesy of Execution Bell. While this sort of thematically sinister soundscape beginning is typical of many horror-orientated extreme metal bands, TOMBSTONER have conjured up a truly foreboding opener. The riff lurches with an off-kilter groove ensnaring the aural senses and preparing the ground for what is to come.
A frenetic, punishing rhythmic delivery lies at the blackened heart of Sealed In Blood and this is very much the tone for the album. However, this is no mere two dimensional, copy and paste of what other artists in the genre are producing. Rot Stink Rip kicks in proper with a catchy as hell drive that will tear your face off and have you coming back for more. The title track itself elevates the stylistics of the band with a chorus that is both brutal yet crowd friendly in its anthemic delivery. There’s a distilled clarity honed within the swirling chaos of riffs and blast beats that is impossible not to get attached to.
There is an astonishing relentlessness to the death metal edge of some tracks that is counter matched with the thrashy intensity pushing the pace and stopping any elements from becoming stagnant. Desperate Dreams delivers on all the thrash fronts with a rampaging charge from start to finish, while album closer Leave You For Last is an absolute bruiser of a track yet the lower tempo feels like a last gasp of air before you hit replay on a truly captivating record.
Despite the album’s oozing nastiness and captivating brutality, there is a deftness to the production that elevates the tracks on offer. Precision and care have been taken to ensure that not only is each aspect of the instrumentation and vocals audible, but all are combined to create a gut-punching sound that delights and pulverises the senses in equal measure.
At a current time when one could throw a guitar pick and hit any one of a number of horror/gore-themed extreme metal bands, there are a select handful that are doing it exceptionally well. One of the key aspects that mark them out from the rest of the pack is that these bands clearly have a sense of humour equal to their musical talent. TOMBSTONER are absolutely part of that group that can be elevated above others and lauded for their contributions to modern extreme metal. Their songwriting is excellent, they’re clearly a group of musicians that know their way around a riff and can create a hook and groove-led track to draw in even the most hardened purist, yet you can absolutely feel the grins they must have had when writing tracks like Fuckin’ Nasty or Compulsive Ruminations. This is just as infectious as the music and will leave you wanting more with each listen.
Rating: 9/10
Rot Stink Rip is out now via Redefining Darkness Records
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