Described as ‘black noise’ by the press release thanks to the band’s disturbing propensity to mix industrial, ambient, drone and black metal together into a bewitching, psychedelic, brutally nihilistic strain of sonic devilry, ‘third wave holocaust’ is the caustic work of T.O.M.B., the Philadelphian act now signed to that insidious force in the shadows Black Plagve Productions (part of the Malignant Records family). Antagonistic and relentless, ‘third wave holocaust’ spends its fifty minute run time scarifying the senses with its ten tracks and there is no doubt that sonic adventurers seeking the terrifyingly bleak endpoint of black metal’s fevered imagination will find refuge here, amidst the clanking, industrialised white-outs and frozen noise.
Opening with ‘antagonizing the unknown’ it seems clear that T.O.M.B are indeed antagonistic, the track opening amidst a wave of uneven distortion and eerie sampled dialogue. The slow chiming of a bell recalls the performance of a ritual and as hideously deformed shrieks emerge from the darkness a sense of unease sets in that sets the heart racing and adrenalin coursing through the body in a panicked fight or flight reaction. Like a director who toys with the audience by never quite showing the evil that lurks in the shadows, so T.O.M.B maintain a hazy gauze over the harrowing shrieks and shimmering synth noise at the heart of the piece, never allowing what is happening to gain focus and thus be defused as a simple piece of studio trickery. It is deeply unnerving, and gets progressively more so as the track crawls on bloodied knees to its conclusion. Those seeking respite in ‘electric exorcism’ will find none, for it opens in a full blown and harrowing digital assault that recalls the unearthly psychedelic madness of Skullflower. Melody has been forever banished from the realms of T.O.M.B, to be replaced with a hurricane of distorted horror. Think Axis Of Perdition but without the narration, or Skullflower at their most abrasive and you’ll know what is in store for you, but don’t make the mistake of assuming this to be easy to listen to or even music in its conventional sense. This is dark art masquerading as abrasive noise, and whilst it will appeal to a very select few, the majority of those who hear this unearthly racket will consider it to be the work of the asylum made public. ‘The great venerate insult’ takes longer to unveil itself. Opening amidst an almost soothing electric hum, the piece slowly grows as T.O.M.B add layer after layer of ambient noise, so building up until it segues into ‘na la gore na’, a strangely monastic chant that recalls Sunn 0)).
Any hints of the holy are well and truly banished by the rumbling auditory abuse of the aptly named ‘vulgarity’ which sounds like Neil Young’s Arc fed through a wall of Orange amplifiers at maximum volume. In contrast to the full-tilt assault on the senses of the previous track, ‘Disrupting admin’ is a filthy trawl through the gutter, with huge arcing drones unleashed under a barrage of mind-warping distortion. Next, the disturbingly named ‘Vom voodoo’ proves to be the slow drawn out sound of tortured screams buried amidst a metallic sheen that echoes and magnifies sound like a stainless steel torture chamber. The title track is a mess of noise and teeth-rattling sonic ugliness that, played at appropriate volume, leaves you disorientated and stunned. After such a display, ‘clairvoyant frequencies’ turns up the heat one step further with an oscillating blast of high frequency white noise, whilst the thoughtful closing track, ‘tribute to Nahua’, does more to recall Elliot Goldenthal’s excellent and deeply creepy soundtrack work for Alien 3 with its echoing chants and industrial rumbling, rounding the album out on a haunting, rather than a savage, note
With ‘third world holocaust’ T.O.M.B. have offered up a compellingly disturbing piece of sonic experimentation that veers between haunting bouts of contemplation and fierce moments of sheer, white-hot terror. With its devastating atmosphere of febrile decay and nervous breakdown, the album is one to listen to alone and unencumbered with work or other distractions and it is one to listen to complete, the point of the pieces lost if they were to be split up and reordered as part of some larger playlist. This is niche music to be sure, but sonic adventurers who have journeyed the hallowed paths of Bass communion, Skullflower, Sunn 0))) and Axis of Perdition will all find much to admire here. A triumph for both T.O.M.B. and Black plagve productions, the label brave enough to unleash this monster upon the world, ‘third world holocaust’ may well become the soundtrack to your nightmares.
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