Tombs are restless—or at least vocalist and guitarist Mike Hill is. Hill's changed the lineup around him a handful of times since founding the band in 2007, and the sound's shifted just as often. They've had a couple different drummers, a few different guitarists and bassists. They've also moved from an act that brought to mind Helmet collaborating with Immortal to something that can bring to mind Sisters of Mercy stuck in a blackened downpour.
Hill has done all this while maintaining an eerie consistency—the group hasn't released a bad record, and their last two collections, 2011's Path of Totality and 2014's Savage Gold, were among the best the years they came out. The music has always been precise and muscular, tough but elegant, even as they started working more elements into their sound: They are capable of making you think of Unsane, Darkthrone, and Bauhaus in the same song. The band name itself,"Tombs," is flexible—broad, everyday, non-specific—but it's always related to death.
Their new EP, All Empires Fall, features their biggest stylistic shift to date. Much of this is due to the addition of synth/electronics player and co-vocalist Fade Kainer, an avowed Andy Stott fan who used to front the crusty doom group, Batillus, and currently plays in the power-electronics project, Theologian, among other industrial-leaning acts. (The EP also welcomes new drummer Charlie Schmid of Vaura and guitarist Evan Void of Sadgiqacea.)
There's more space here than on past offerings. The songs are still coiled and intense, but Tombs allow themselves room to drift into dark chasms of rough, bleak ambience. You have to think this is partially a result of the flexibility Kainer affords them. He also adds Wax Trax howls alongside Hill's brutal barks. Hill continues to grow as a singer; When not shouting or screaming, he's crooning clean tones that can bring to mind Peter Murphy or Ian Curtis. In the past I've likened Hill to a drill sergeant because of his muscles and shaved head. In person, though, he strikes me as especially calm, even zen. You do get the idea, however, that he's pushing the people around him to make the most disciplined music of their careers—and that they're happily following his lead.
All Empires Fall is brief. There are five songs across 24 minutes, and it feels more like a palate cleanser than a complete offering. But because of its precision, and Sanford Parker's dense production, it's also powerful. Short instrumental "The World is Made of Fire" sounds like a post-metal anthem reminiscent of fellow Brooklynites Sannhet until the entrance of melancholic, gothic-metal synths. It's followed by "Obsidian,” which as its name suggests, offers swarming black metal. On the song, Hill growls"We are the fallen/ Manifest in shadows"; much of the record explores the apocalypse on a personal, individual level.
Like all of what Tombs does, the lyrics and music feel thoughtful— there are no tossed-off details in the maelstrom. The more mid-tempo "Last Days of Sunlight” drips with haunted, clanging atmospherics; Hill chants lyrics that feel personal ("It is hard to forgive me/ 100 tears have fallen") with a dead-eyed intonation. The shredding, bass-heavy, death rock-paced"Deceiver" features dual vocals from Hill and Kainer, along with contributions from Sera Timms of Black Mare and Ides of Gemini. It's kind of like industrial Watain.
But it's the last song,"V”, that has me most excited for what they do next. Opening with a minute and a half of what sounds like a distant wind tunnel lined with ice, the six and a half minute track becomes an anthem that moves between black metal, post-punk, and death rock. Hill and Kainer repeatedly shout"Fall into the great divide/ Fall into the netherworld," while elegant synths and layers of guitars and drums fight it out behind them. It's maybe the catchiest song Tombs have ever written. It reminded me of the dark punk anthems that would sometimes show up on MTV's 120 Minutes when I was a kid, which made me think about how black metal is often just one step away from goth and punk. On these songs, Tombs take those steps and more, and then sprint.
