{"id":498953,"date":"2025-10-14T14:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/498953\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T14:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:03:12","slug":"tombs-feral-darkness-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/498953\/","title":{"rendered":"Tombs – Feral Darkness Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"This is my first time reviewing Brooklyn\u2019s Tombs,<\/strong> but it\u2019s not my first time experiencing them. Each year that a new Tombs<\/strong> drops, I feel the hype machine churning from the community, which I love, disinterring my interest in the sludgy, blackened call Tombs<\/strong> is now known so well for. It\u2019s been five years since the somewhat divisive Under Sullen Skies<\/a> first graced my ears, and now I take over for Doom_et_Al<\/strong> to serve at the foot of Feral Darkness.<\/p>\n

Tombs<\/strong> pushes forward with much of their confident, swaggering style intact. A boisterous mix of Black Royal<\/strong><\/a> groove, Oathbreaker<\/strong> vitriol, and a touch of that post-tinged Inter Arma<\/strong><\/a> nastiness, Feral Darkness makes a strong case for the style. A burbling, clanging bass tone and stomping drum kit drives this record with greater heft than I experienced on previous installments, evoking a deep-seated, monstrous rage that rattles my bones. Meanwhile, a frightening howl and a chanting croon ensorcells the spirit in much the same way as those who call upon eldritch forces maleficent and omnipotent, Sulphur Aeon<\/strong><\/a>. Filling the space between, a crunchy guitar tone lightly dusted with a moldy, post-metal fuzz envelops my senses and draws a sense of warmth into my flesh.<\/p>\n

Feral Darkness by Tombs<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a highly successful sound, one that is sometimes relegated to songwriting that doesn\u2019t take full advantage of its power. Admittedly, Feral Darkness launches in fine form, with three muscular, riff-laden numbers that, while all falling somewhere inside the mid-paced category of speed, nonetheless propel with force. However, somewhere between the final third of the gloom-and-doom \u201cGranite Sky\u201d and the charred and post-y \u201cLast Days,\u201d monotony sets in. A lack of variation in pace wears on the mind, and a dearth of creative songwriting or exciting ideas siphons impact and memorability from the first half. As such, in moments where my time is precious, I struggle to commit to the rest of Feral Darkness\u2019 bloated 50-minute runtime.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

With time and some patience, I learned to remind myself that at this exact moment, a minor miracle occurs. \u201cThe Wintering\u201d explodes in a burst of violent velocity capable of beheading those weak of upper spine, and Feral Darkness finds firm footing at last. The hits keep coming, too, as evil cuts like \u201cBlack Shapes\u201d and the deathly \u201cWasps\u201d double down on the blackened side of Tombs<\/strong>\u2019 multifaceted personality. Layered tremolos and striking energy form a ashen shell that coats the final third of the record, as if to signify the final evolution of Feral Darkness\u2019 story. Consequently, a new sense of scale builds a formidable presence that makes me forget my earlier quibbles, at least for a moment. Latecomer \u201cNightland\u201d reprises those issues that plagued the first half, bloating the runtime with seven minutes of uninspired eeriness and a lack of compelling songwriting to go with it.<\/p>\n

Tombs<\/strong> unearthed every tool they had in their long-established kit to craft Feral Darkness. I respect that level of versatility, and at the end of the day, the result is enjoyable, albeit a little choppy. Feral Darkness\u2019 best material handily saves the record from falling down the pit of boredom, but it arrives almost too late. If they focused their efforts on their strongest ideas and left fluffy filler like \u201cNightland,\u201d \u201cLast Days,\u201d or superfluous closing outro \u201cGlaeken\u201d on the cutting room floor, Tombs<\/strong> would\u2019ve had an unstoppable, destructive monster to showcase to the world. As it stands, Feral Darkness will certainly please established fans of the band or the style, but might not convince skeptics or casual passers-by. It\u2019s up to you to decide in which camp you belong.<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> Good
DR:<\/strong> 6 | Format Reviewed:<\/strong> 320 kb\/s mp3
Label:<\/strong> Redefining Darkness<\/a>
Websites:<\/strong> tombscult.bandcamp.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/TombsBklyn<\/a>
Releases Worldwide:<\/strong> October 17th, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is my first time reviewing Brooklyn\u2019s Tombs, but it\u2019s not my first time experiencing them. Each year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[743,12933,12295,11463,163845,77,163846,23455,32834,127249,269,163847,156239,28036,163848,6080,6082,28037,104419,163849,163850,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-498953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-743","9":"tag-3-0","10":"tag-american-metal","11":"tag-black-metal","12":"tag-black-royal","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-feral-darkness","15":"tag-hardcore","16":"tag-inter-arma","17":"tag-mastodon","18":"tag-music","19":"tag-oathbreaker","20":"tag-oct25","21":"tag-post-metal","22":"tag-redefining-darkness","23":"tag-review","24":"tag-reviews","25":"tag-sludge","26":"tag-sludge-metal","27":"tag-sulphur-aeon","28":"tag-tombs","29":"tag-uk","30":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115372897506718973","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}