Primordial Malignity

Vehement morbidity
dB rating: 8/10

Release Date: February 3, 2017
Label: Blood Harvest

Last year Tomb Mold recorded—in chronological order—The Bottomless Perdition demo, Primordial Malignity (the LP in question) and a second demo, The Moulting (which they started writing while tracking leads for Primordial Malignity). When a band knocks out two demos and a full-length in the same year, the potential listener may be tempted to form some preconceived notions. Having heard everything Tomb Mold’s done so far, I can tell you the only safe conclusion to draw regarding this Toronto-based duo is that they must have a blast writing, playing and recording death metal.

On Primordial Malignity, drummer/vocalist Max Klebanoff and guitarist/bassist Derrick Vella maintain—if not flex—the raw energy of their demo. PM is eight tracks written and recorded while under the influence of their own monstrous dominance. Vella sprints through his frontal-lobe-probing riffs like he’s doomed but determined to finish his macabre manifesto in parts. Klebanoff takes every chance he gets to destroy the bejesus out of his drums, and he gets plenty of chances. “Bereavement of Flesh” sees the only re-recording from the demo—and right on, because it deserves a little hosing down and a cleaner presentation. Boiling over with riffs like squirmy things that don’t want to be pinned down: sort of Finnish but stronger, thicker, more Canadian. Tar-throated howls thrown up from aphotic depths; inescapable vortices of death and doom. And never a single instance of deja entendu. By the time they hit you with the title track, it’s too late. You’re fully assimilated.

— Dutch Pearce

This review taken from the April 2017 issue. Primordial Malignity is available on vinyl from Blood Harvest Records.

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