The Enduring Spirit

Album review

The Canadian death metal enthusiasts' fourth full-length effort and first album in four years, The Enduring Spirit sees Tomb Mold continuing to innovate within the realms of the steadfastly orthodox heavy metal sub-genre. Max Klebanoff's cavernous growl and steely beats provide the anchor, allowing guitarists Payson Power and Derrick Vella to veer off into uncharted territory without losing their true north. Throughout the LP's tightly-cloistered seven-songs, blastbeats race neck and neck with blazing riffs that house frantic melodies wrapped in discord. Those moments of unrelenting fury occasionally give way to proggy jazz-fusion reveries that suggest Tomb Mold listened to as much Rush during their formative years as they did Death's Scream Bloody Gore. Even at their most kinetic, there is a constant sense that a hard left is just around the corner, and repeated spins yield cracks in the framework that offer glimpses of future forays. The epic closing track, "The Enduring Spirit of Calamity," feels like Tomb Mold's most defining statement to date, combining all of the band's sonic preferences into an exquisite corpse of death metal possibilities that, like all that came before it, pairs unrelenting malevolence with the majestic disinterest of the cosmos.

© James Christopher Monger /TiVo