T.O.M.E.: "I" (official)
T.O.M.E.
Online Video
MetalMusicArchives.com — the ultimate metal music online community, from the creators of progarchives.com
SPREAD EVIL is proud to present T.O.M.E.'s highly anticipated debut
album, I-III. Out on 4th of June 2021.
https://spreadevil.bandcamp.com
militant-underground.com
A mysterious entity whose membership is rumored to include veterans
of the Finnish metal underground, T.O.M.E. are as beguiling as their
likewise-mysterious acronymed moniker. Their chosen idiom is indeed
black metal, but the iteration of such across the
three-song/36-minute I-III is as twisted and treacherous as it
comes. Heaving, hulking, and haunting, T.O.M.E.-the-band defy
conventional definitions of "black metal."
While largely lumbering in its downtempo stomp, the crunchy canvas
of I-III eventually reveals subtle-yet-nevertheless dramatic surges
of energy and surprisingly catchy hooks that otherwise evade rote
"catchiness." No, the dense and decidedly tense album builds and
builds and builds, that tension simmering and eventually brought to
a boil; there are no crowd-pleasing moments here even if the bulk of
the band's attack is exceptionally headbanging at times. The cool
'n' coasting ease with which T.O.M.E. construct these hypnotizing
screeds similarly nods to DSBM tropes, but malforms them in a manner
that brings it all back to Burzum's most pioneering works.
Elsewhere, shades of everything from prime Barathrum to Triptykon at
their blackest to even Bolt Thrower-gone-BM slither through the
soundfield.
And this is but the start: with the seemingly inscrutable title of
I-III, the band have revealed that this first album is the first in
a continuance of albums featuring three songs, with IV-VI to follow,
then VII-IX etc. You've been warned.
T.O.M.E. could be a t-o-m-b, for all we know. Enter their crypt and
discover for yourself.