WrekTomb – Bovine Mockeries of Human Posturing

Written by on 27-04-2024 at 17:02.

Goddamn, what have we got here? A dark trio by the name of WrekTomb – in the photos hidden behind carnal-looking masks – from America. Very heavy death doom with a sense of dissonant and repulsive melodies. Tragic long-drawn-out passages are also part of this debut consisting of five songs that take 42 minutes of your time.

Time you could probably spend on many other things, as well as I could. But after putting on this debut, those so-called other things are merely side issues or maybe even futilities when you enjoy the death rattling of frontman Nick Krostoff. And sometimes you don’t need anything else, when the screaming guitar riffs act as glue within the musical concept. Fundamentally, this isn’t very complex music, but everything is geared towards making the biggest impact possible. And when a band consists of a trio with the ingenuity, passion and skills to create an insane piece of work, this Bovine Mockeries of Human Posturing is seemingly the end result that can be achieved. In the promo talk, no bands are mentioned as references, which is perhaps just the most appropriate thing to do, because WrekTomb is damn hard to compare with other bands in the scene. Feel free to leave a comment if you do have an idea, as the band you mention for comparison may then also be of interest to your editor on duty. The only name that comes to mind in terms of atmospheric setting is Archgoat, if these gentlemen were playing death doom that is.

Sometimes a musical experience is too overwhelming to describe in a normal way. So I will try to interpret the album in a different, more metaphorical way in the hope of conveying what an impact this debut manages to have on me. Gored Into Reality opens with a monstrous sound of some wicked animal. It feels like I am initially dragged into a dark cave, gloomy with only one candelabra to keep things at least a little visual. The lingering cadence, melodies and guitar excesses act as a minor consolation in this regard. Beaten with an iron chain – to the point of bleeding – and provided with only a little water and bread, I am in captivity for almost three quarters of an hour, but completely in my own world. In a place in time and space that I wouldn’t want to leave for anything, not even when the band members let me get a breath of fresh air for a moment, right at the end of Quantumcreep. And those other things? I stopped thinking about those a long time ago, when I realise that Society Supported Psychopaths is a song not out of the blue, but perhaps based on truth. WrekTomb is a band that doesn’t control its own impulses, deliberately unleashing hard poundings on anxious listeners time after time, to evoke a fascinating form of consolation afterwards. And I am too excited by the fact that no less than 34 listens can fit into a twenty-four-hour period. It doesn’t take much to make me volunteer to stay in the cave for the time being.

What a horribly insane and at the same time curious creation with the bizarre title Bovine Mockeries of Human Posturing this album has become. Basically, we mostly hear a lot of death doom, but due to the intense, gloomy nature of the music, I would also especially encourage funeral adepts to give this a try. Forewarned is forearmed, this dark mass will swallow you whole to decimate you to just a willing heap of misery.

Score:

97/100

Label:

Personal Records, 2024

Tracklisting:

  1. Gored Into Reality
  2. Unexpected Encounters with Nature´s Order
  3. Quantumcreep
  4. Society Supported Psychopaths
  5. This Decay of Me

Line-up:

Nick Krostoff – Vocals, all instruments
Dieter Itis – Drums
Vera Kätzin – ?

Links: