EP REVIEW: Monarchy of Shadows – Tombs

TOMBS are one of the more impressive acts to come out of the US black metal scene. Since their debut, self-titled EP saw the light of day back in 2007, the band have slowly but surely established a reputation for producing music that is simultaneously dark and epic, with their 2015 Savage Gold album being one of their finest moments to date, and bringing the band to worldwide acclaim. Their latest EP, Monarchy of Shadows, is their first release since the excellent The Grand Annihilation back in mid 2017, and comes across as a fantastic piece of music rather than a throw away release, featuring some of the band’s best material to date.

Monarchy of Shadows begins with a foreboding, atmospheric dark ambient motif that sets a dark tone, quickly giving way to a monolithic rhythmic piece of music, which suddenly transforms into a monstrous, cacophonous slab of black metal with haunting clean vocals, much more feral howls and slick, melody driven lead guitars, making for a very intense, and ultimately diverse, track. The dark ambient parts slowly start to creep back into the music towards its closing moments, before providing the listener with one last, aggressive blast of melody tinged black metal. It’s a solid and epic way to start this album off.

Once Falls the Guillotine is a bestial blast of caustic and speed driven black metal, with an excellent, tremolo picked riff that immediately grabs the listeners attention and makes for an instantly catchy song. With tight, pummelling drums providing a solid base for the rest of the music, this track starts out as an incredibly intense piece of music, before shifting into a much darker, mid-paced affair built around robust guitars, epic flourishes and a much more sonorous set of vocals. It’s a brilliant track that definitely raises the bar significantly.

Necro Alchemy, with its punishing percussion and focused, razor sharp guitar hooks, is another great slab of blackened metal with plenty of hair-raising riffs, which keep the music interesting and varied. The vocals take on a much more guttural approach, adding a visceral depth to the mix, and making for an absolutely massive sound at certain points. As the song enters its second half, the music shifts from a vicious black metal offering to a much thicker, almost death metal monstrosity, with rhythmic, chugging guitars which make what was already a heavy track all the more ferocious. It’s a great, eclectic track that brings the records first half to a close on a high note.

Man Behind the Sun slides back into a more post-black metal orientated sound, with blisteringly fast, ethereal guitars really carrying this song at points, with the chaotic edge of the drums providing a solid counterpoint to the rest of the music, rarely slowing the pace or intensity for even a second. The vocals, however, are the focal point of this particular song, with perhaps the most diverse range of singing coming into play, with shrill, shrieks blending into sonorous and foreboding clean passages, with a smattering of death metal growls thrown in for good measure. This concoction of different vocal styles really works well, and mirrors the music extremely well, creating a hypnotic effect from time to time, and injecting more savagery into the fray when it is required. It’s got all of the hallmarks of TOMBS‘ trademark sound, but it’s clear that with this song, TOMBS are expanding the scope of what they can do on record.

Path of Totality (Midnight Sun) follows in much the same vein, with hellish howls, tight yet minimalist leads and cacophonous drumming giving this song an utterly caustic feel. It again makes use of a plethora of vocal styles, crafting, much like the track that preceded it, an impressively atmospheric piece of music with some fantastic changes of pace that is thoroughly engrossing. It’s a relatively short, sharp shock of a song that helps to bring the listener back into the record even at such a late point on the record, giving this album one of its main climactic exclamation points. The Dark Rift is a very strong closing gambit. Combining a solid rhythmic assault with acerbic vocals, this is a dark and bleak piece of music that does a great job of blending a razor sharp black metal sound with some killer atmospherics, a combination that works extremely well, only getting better as the track progresses. The contrast between the shrill black metal vocal approach and a far more booming clean vocal style makes this song all the more ferocious and eclectic as it reaches its climax, proving to be, if not the best song on the record, then one of the more caustic and powerful, bringing this EP to a close perfectly.

For the most part, EP’s are written off and ignored, but this is a release that deserves to be heard by a wide audience. Monarchy of Shadows boasts some of the most impressive and tight music TOMBS has ever produced, with some of the songs rivalling some of the bands dyed in wool classics in terms of quality. Everything, from the music itself to the production, sounds absolutely killer, and it’s very hard to find fault with this record. To listen to this EP is to hear a band that are at their creative zenith. It will be interesting to see how the band overcome the lofty hurdle they have set for themselves with this record, because it features some of the best material TOMBS has ever produced.

Rating: 9/10

Monarchy of Shadows is set for release on February 28th via Season of Mist.

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