Primordial Malignity

After releasing their first demo just last year, Tomb Mold has released an LP to go with it, containing most of the same traditional death metal as the demo had with better production. Not a tremendously innovative release, the meat-and-potatoes offering will still probably be gratifying to devotees of old-time Finnish death metal. The minimalism of the band's sound can perhaps be explained by their small numbers. With guitarist Derrick Vella handling bass duties as well, and the drummer doing the singing, the basic force behind the music focuses more on the blunt instrument of bludgeoning the listener without mercy. Vella's habit of tremolo-picking guitar riffs on top of the slower rhythm sections provides a raucous blast to counterbalance all the solid, blocky riffing with some noise. The lead solos accomplish the same result: Even with the better production of an LP album, they remain rattling, downtuned affairs, distorted into a scratchy wretchedness; they sound like they're about to fly apart at the seams at any moment. Bereavement of Flesh, previously revealed on the The Bottomless Perdition EP, remains one of the best songs on display here, with its stabs at technical riffing and a rousing intro that would surely play well to the mosh pit, but the title track's elephantine bulk is also welcome, featuring a grim battering on the main bass riff that's backed up well by the use of cymbal. I enjoyed Clockwise Metamorphosis, which has hoarsely grunting rhythm riffs interspersed with squawked lead bits up in the high octaves, also. Like the albums of the band's early influences, the dark echoing of the production puts the listener in a haunted cathedral made of echoing concrete, with the awful racket within bouncing off the inside walls. Primordial Malignity, while displaying no interest yet on the part of the band in departing from their influences, is a nice solid death metal album of the old Northern school. Listeners who want to experience the roughness of a death metal band that prefers the 90s-era lo-fi vibe may like this one. Bandcamp: https://bloodharvestrecords.bandcamp.com/album/primordial-malignity-12lp-cd.