Fighting for total command of corruption’s spoils while embracing technology powerful enough to generate the psychic derangement of humanity abounding the cruel overseers of civilization depicted within Lexington, Kentucky-based death metal quartet TOMBSTALKER‘s sophomore full-length album are as fantastically villainous as the bane(s) of the 41st millennium yet as real as the reactionary forces pulling all strings today. The smoking wretch of subversion that ‘Chaos Monolith‘ illustrates stays true to the crusted-up and thrashing ‘old school’ death metal these folks’ve long bandied about but this time around they’ve refined all into freshly stun-locking underground idyll. Whether you’re a longtime fan who’d lost touch a decade ago or a newcomer this record offers some of the band’s best work to date, sure to pierce the ear of auld death metal obsessives in particular.

Tombstalker formed as a trio back in 2008 by way of folks who’ve been instrumental in notable bands Rotting Kingdom and Pyromancer (among others) since. Their style originally combined a thrashing early melodic death sound with an HM-2 juiced pulse and came to include bursts of d-beat and classic Bolt Thrower type movement on the path toward their debut LP (‘Black Crusades‘, 2015). Since I’d gone into some considerable detail describing the band’s path in review of their most recent EP (‘Age of Darkness‘, 2023) it’ll suffice to suggest their work on that record generated plenty of hype for what’d come next thanks to its ornate semi-melodic style and thunderous sound, a refinement of where they’d began per their self-titled EP back in 2011.

Though he’d provided session work on ‘Age of Darkness‘ I believe drummer Dustin Boltjes (Flesher, ex-Demiricous, et al.) marks the fifth or sixth fellowe behind the kit for Tombstalker and in each case he’s brought vital precision to their greater collaboration. The band’ve likewise reenlisted Jason Groves @ Sneak Attack Studios for the engineer and render of ‘Chaos Monolith‘ ensuring that the magick behind the band’s most recent work is replicated to great effect. So if you’ve been out of the loop since 2015, or were never in it to start, with you’ll find the quartet at their best form here, generating their own raw expanse of crusted over and groove-ridden ‘old school’ death metal inflection.

‘Chaos Monolith‘ amounts to a classics informed eight song, ~40 minute death metal record in the early 90’s style which takes after European and South American inspiration moreso than too-direct USDM countenance. The general tone of the record is dire, explosive but no less tanking than they’ve been in the past wherein the first half buses along within fiery sledgehammered pieces and the second half introduces slightly more melodic ideas to round out the full experience. That said there isn’t a ton of fanfare on the way out, at least not as much as Tombstalker‘ve prioritized within the groove-cut impact and cataclysmic bombast featured throughout Side A.

Starting with the eight minute chainsaw carve of opener/title track “Chaos Monolith” you’ll get a feel for the imperfect lead guitar hand applied, the various schools of extreme metal and metalpunk within Tombstalker‘s rhythms, and gutturally roared diction which in total comprise the band’s signature. It is a whopping opening scene but nukes continue to discharge as they storm through those first four songs. By the endpoint of “Fully Armed and Filthy” and later on within “Iron Within Iron Without” we find the band developing ideas gleaned from early 90’s melodic death by way of a Dismember-cum-‘Arise‘ sized riff pump and some feasibly “heavy metal” moments peeking through their trampling ways.

While I appreciate the thunder-edged groove cut through a piece like “Unto the Anvil of War” my interest would pretty consistently perk via Tombstalker‘s more melodic and/or dramatically stated pieces. “Warp Storm Imminent” is probably the best example of where many of the band’s alchemical components merge into this type of sublimity, a fine balance between purposed thrashing aggression and semi-melodic veering statements. Otherwise the major highlight of Side B was unquestionably “Penitent Engine” wherein the band introduce more prominent keyboards amidst an Amebix-esque trample-in as they motion toward a more punishing lunging beast soon after.

Though they still carry all of the shambling, apocalyptic dementia envisioned from the start Tombstalker have found an ideal point of refinement here over a decade beyond their first full-length album. The cruel revolt that is ‘Chaos Monolith‘ is graven far more often than it is playful with its rhythms but that doesn’t stop it from being defined by a restless level of detail, actions which gird the experience with tormented characterization. This, along with brilliant cover art via Ola Larsson, all syncs up into great sense both for the personage established by the band and the dystopic collapse it narrates. A high recommendation.

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