Band:	Tombs
Album:	Fear Is The Weapon
Style:	Black metal, Sludge metal
Release date:	2010

01. Fountain Of The World 666
02. Course Of Empire
03. Calvaire
04. Marina
05. Monuments
06. Darker Than Your Nights
07. Hallways Of The Always
08. Cypress
09. Gods Of Love & Suicide
10. Cheval Noir
11. Gossamer [demo]
12. Merrimack [demo]
13. Beneath The Toxic Jungle [demo]
14. Filled With Secrets [demo]

About a year ago I reviewed the debut album from Brooklyn's Tombs. Winter Hours was a pretty cool album mixing elements of sludge and black metal into a nice, dense, oppressive sonic slab.

Tombs is back a year later with Fear Is The Weapon, a compilation presumably to tide us over until their sophomore full-length. This release, limited to 1,000 copies, contains the tracks of their initial self-titled EP, their split with Planks, as well as some demo versions of songs that ended up on Winter Hours.

So what's it sound like? It sounds like more of the same, truth be told. If you liked Winter Hours, you'll definitely enjoy this release. The band itself sound darker, bleaker, murkier, and even more raw than they did on their nice "metal major" album release.

The songs are varied. Some are more direct - shredding with tremolo black metal stylings or pummeling with sludge-hammer blunt force trauma. However, other tracks also reveal willingness to explore other avenues of maintaining the murk.

The instrumental "Marina" adopts an almost industrial-ambient approach to bleakness, whereas "Course Of Empire" sees a Godflesh influence with the ringing out of guitar tones, vocal delivery, and song flow. "Cheval Noir" sees haunting female spoken and sung vocals to retain the stark, unflinching atmosphere.

So while the band excels at their own version of blackened sludge, they also show the ability to write good material in other directions to help keep things interesting.

And while you might think that songs representing three separate releases might sound disjointed, the overall flow is actually pretty good. This album goes to show that the urban jungle can be every bit as harsh, cold, and unfeeling as any forest after dark.