Damn, if it feels good to be a Death Metal fan. Last year’s extreme harvest gave us albums from Obituary, Artificial Brain, Suffocation, Morbid Angel, Immolation, Decapitated, and Tomb Mold just to name a few. And so far, this year is shaping up to be another fruitful one with efforts from At The Gates, The Crown, Pestilence, Rivers of Nihil and Tomb Mold. Wait, what? In the span of one year, this Torontonian act has written and recorded another LP in Manor of Infinite Forms (20 Buck Spin).

Quick turnaround be damned, Tomb Mold’s singular purpose is to compose vintage sounding Death and see how many wicked riffs can be weaved together per song. At the risk of courting controversy, Tomb Mold cranks out riffs and solders them together in the same fashion as in Metallica’s Ride the Lightning, Mastodon’s Leviathan, or Pig Destroyer’s Book Burner. Pay attention to the shifting riffage and subgenres solely in ‘Gored Embrace (Confronting Biodegradation)’ and suddenly mixing Black, Thrash, and Melodic Death Metal makes sense.

‘Final Struggle of Selves’ takes all the vital parts of Cannibal Corpse’s The Bleeding and puts them on display with heavy chunks of groove, waves of speedy beats and enough rumbling bass to keep it all together. The lessons learned from Cannibal Corpse are also alive in the dynamic shifts of ‘Chamber of Sacred Ootheca’ and Max Klebanoff’s furious drum fills are strikingly similar to the work of a young Igor Cavalera. And before any song is done, guitarists Derrick Vela and Payson Power make sure you’re hit with spring coil tight leads and solos.

Can Tomb Mold keep up this Death win-streak? With their talents, I’m leaning yes. But a more important question, are we getting another one of these next year? I’m not one to complain if so.

8.0/10

HANS LOPEZ