Irish Progressive Sludge/Death Outfit Tooms Prepare To Release Karst on Road To Masochist

Hailing from Limerick in the west of Ireland, Tooms’ progressive sludge metal has been evolving into ever more astounding forms since 2017. Bassist Anto Donnellan, drummer Kieran Grace and guitarist/vocalist Alex Hölzinger had been working together for four years prior to that, under the name of Gaia, but it was with the first Tooms single, ‘Simon Ferocious’, that their creative endeavours really began to gather momentum. Debut album, The Orb Offers Massive Signals, was released in the summer of 2020 on Cursed Monk Records and was warmly received by critics, with Wonderbox Metal describing it as “an underground journey into sludgy heaviness and murky darkness”. Now the band are ready to reveal their second full length album – and while the weight and gloom remain prevalent, Karst shows Tooms spreading their wings and letting their collective imagination take flight…

Beginning with an echoing, cavernous rumble, Karst’s opening track ‘Blood Rust – Of Cudgel And Quill’ is brute force and harnessed chaos, held in check by straining muscle and grinding teeth. The instruments are loosely bound, with an antagonism and ever-present potential violence seething in the spaces between them – and when they lock together the energy and power is exhilarating. The guitars possess a rich, snarling effervescence beneath a crust of dried blood and dirt and that sense of life, in all its glorious, torturous, filthy, vivid vibrancy explodes in the following ‘Lowlander’. The progressive, adventurous nature of Karst emerges; gritty and beautiful. Not the beauty of poetic hyperbole but of vital, harsh reality. From the imposing, compelling, rugged majesty of ‘Tower Of Silence’ to the unpredictable beast that is ‘Whitethorn’ with its jagged, rusted razors hidden in the mud, to the inescapable reflection of ‘Two Silver Pieces’ – aged and weathered, back bent beneath the weight of a lifetime of sorrows, loss and simple, cumulative disappointments – Karst grows into a multifaceted, expansive creation formed from emotion, ambition and searing intensity. Final track, ‘Physics Beyond The Standard Model’ is a truly grand conclusion. There is a sense of reaching a peak from which you can look back over the full vista of Tooms’ accomplishments – and look ahead to the incredible potential futures unveiled. This captivating epic of a track would be enough in itself, let alone as the staggering final act in such a dramatic narrative. It offers a summation of the entire journey that has gone before; the balance of urgency and eternity, the raw, bloody reality, the unvarnished yet breathtaking realisation of a multitude of ideas.

Having recorded Karst with long-time collaborator Chris Quigley at The Meadow Studios, Tooms handed the task of mixing to Matt Bayles (Isis, Mastodon, The Sword etc) and mastering to Chris Fielding (Conan, Darkest Era, Hooded Menace etc) and the results are superb – nothing smoothed, no edges lost and everything possessing clarity, heft, emotion and atmospheric texture. Karst will be released on May 29th, on CD by Road To Masochist, vinyl by Cursed Monk Records, cassette by Fiadh Productions and on all major digital platforms. This is unmissable.