In the trenches of the northeastern United States underground and putting in dues for over a decade now Baltimore, Maryland-based progressive death/thrash metal quartet NUCLEAR TOMB have reached a point of readiness for their rare-form agenda. Achieving righteously grit-scrubbed render and a singular personae that best facilitates their fastidious yet loosely slung ‘old school’ extreme thrash attack these folks show the exponential benefits of putting in the time, in rehearsal and on the road, as they present the focused yet eclectic charge of ‘Terror Labyrinthian. Cerebral as often as it is referential these folks aim to show their work and their passion for the far side of weirding thrash-craft, the stylized sling of riff and skronking abstraction as it applies to the most diabolical age of creative mass for the sub-genre.

With attitudes reinforced by psyches freed by late 70’s prog rock and genetic expression built on cues from bizarro-core, old school avant-thrash, and nearby arcane progressive death metal the stuff that Nuclear Tomb are made of began spooling up around 2011. Interest in the abstraction of modern heavy music as much as the boon of underground heavy metal creativity in the 80’s these folk’s core reference of thrash metal involves self-actualization somewhere nearby exposure to Voivod, recognizing they could embody every myriad sub-genre and niche passion they’d enjoyed and all at once. Their first serious strike at identity came with ‘Succumbing‘ (2019) a still formative EP which I’d reviewed at the time and praised with great enthusiasm for its ambition and flow of ideas. That first official release only appears more tentative when compared to their work since including a second EP (‘Offer Your Life‘, 2022) which emphasized their skronk-edged thrash sound a bit more and picked up some speed along the way. At that point I don’t think they’d been able to communicate their intent of ‘old school’ thrash informed work in terms of production values and key details (such as guitar tones) wherein vocalist/guitarist Michael Brown (Ixias, Total Maniac) and sometimes co-songwriter/bassist A. Morris were writing weirding rippers but needed more experience translating intent/vision to engineers and sound designers.

The gap achieved between 2022-2024 appears chasmic at a glance as their work transitions from a conceptual outline to a varietal and ripping debut in practicum today, leaving past work feeling plainly mid-paced and incomplete in direct comparison with ‘Terror Labyrinthian‘. There are a few different ways to account for the leap felt within the band’s work in the last couple of years, first and most obvious is practical experience touring and playing with like-minded bands who are also pushing their craft and capabilities at a constant. Otherwise finding an engineer/producer has helped Nuclear Tomb‘s sound now hit a more authentic curve in their intended ‘old school’ thrash informed reach where the drum performances are rendered fairly realistic in confined space and defined yet swaying positions are given to the bass guitar and vocals in said space. The rhythm guitars are attuned to the tech-thrash spectrum of the late 80’s for the most part though there are some dissonant and sludgy extractions afforded the riffcraft found on this album. Just the right amount of new ideas and techniques work their way in here and this helps to expand their presence beyond a live-in-studio feeling death-thrash attack as innovations and bursts of erratic thoughts arrive intermittently throughout the full listen.

Just beyond the chunking, kicking and later-on twisted lines of opener “Obsoletion” we run head-on into one of those major extraction points with title track “Terror Labyrinthian” (see also: “Dominance & Persecution”) which manifests as a chaotic and somewhat abstract piece in terms of its guitar trawl and overall pace though they’ve kept the overarching movement and basic rhythmic conclusion of the song simple enough as a recognizable speed metal barrage. We could point to the history of hairier death-thrash for precedence, something like Fatal (Detroit) if they were incurring Mekong Delta circa ’89, and this’d likewise apply to the simpler deployment of “Fatal Visions” afterwards, but the important note to take is how Nuclear Tomb ride the fence between recognizable thrash metal characteristics and unpredictable niche agnostic riffcraft. What is readable as distinctly within the nature of extreme thrash and what else is pulled into this eclectic grouping of song types and niche-mindful voicing makes for a familiar yet unreal sensation while diving into ‘Terror Labyrinthian‘. If you are a fan of anything from Ripping Corpse and Sadus to Mass Psychosis it should all begin to coalesce into form within just a few rides through.

As we scan the tracklist through Side B it becomes apparent this newly complete and practiced voice of Nuclear Tomb intends to expand into further variety while sticking with the free-wheeling, appropriately loose shouldered riffs that’d kept the first half of the album coherent. The passage from “Vile Humanity”, their death-thrash Megadeth does The Exploited circa 1988 metalpunk piece, toward the slapping heat of “Parasitic” represents my favorite portion of the album for the sake of wheeling through a colonnade of crunchier ideas that help to reinforce ways in which their clangorous, frenzied attack can demonstrate variety while breaking the shorter, simpler placement found at the high-energy impetus of ‘Terror Labyrinthian‘ to start; Otherwise the song that I was most interested to hear on my first few spins through was their reworking of “Ashen Lamb”, the notable closer from their ‘Succumbing‘ EP, with some blitzed pace applied to up the intensity and this seems to assist the Maiden-esque guitar melody that carries the piece.

For a record that lands just over a half hour (~33 minutes) ‘Terror Labyrinthian‘ is naturally quick on its feet and simple enough in its statement to the point where the density of riff ideas still upholds an old thrasher’s standard for actions-per-minute but knows when to hang back and let an idea ride out before moving on. As Nuclear Tomb endeavor to strike at faster speeds and hold fast to Brown‘s bloody-throated snarl their core goal reads as maniac aggression up front, a swerving psych-thrash freneticism upon closer inspection, and a fairly memorable record overall when all is said and done. With this in mind what they’ve done best here is engage the listener, made a connection through provocative shorter pieces which pack in their own sense of expression without bombarding to the point that they lose their classics-minded thrash forward snappiness. If you love nothing more than to sit with a grip of punkish death-thrash riffs and follow along this one should hold your attention for months but if you’re in it for purely catchy songs these folks are more about energetic display than the usual thrash hooks. A high recommendation.

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