We’re nearly a third into 2024 and it has proven to be quite the year for the absurdly niche fusion subgenre of technical death/thrash metal. Norway’s Sovereign treated us to a sci-fi spin on Spiritual Healing era Death with their debut album, Altered Realities. Chthe’ilist offshoot Dissimulator wowed us with the “What if Voivod went death metal?” insanity of their debut, Lower Form Resistance. Now, yet another tech death/thrash band strikes with yet another debut that’s bound to have headbangers talking for quite some time. The band is Nuclear Tomb and the album is Terror Labyrinthian.
Nuclear Tomb have lurked about in some capacity or another going as far back as 2011. The brainchild of Michael Brown, who you might also know from the likes of metalpunks Total Maniac and grinders Ixias, the band has released demos and EPs throughout the past decade. Now, however, the time has come for the initial full length strike. Joining Brown on this voyage is drummer J.D. Lookabill, bassist Amelia Morris, and guitarist Matt Ibach of Deceased/October 31 infamy. Together, this quartet are hellbent on crafting some downright schizophrenic death/thrash, guaranteed to leave necks snapped and heads spinning.
Similar to Dissimulator, it’s easy to draw comparisons between Nuclear Tomb and Voivod, if only for the avant-garde freakouts, apocalyptic atmosphere, and overall unpredictability of each song. This is especially showcased on cuts like “Obsoletion”, “Dominance & Persecution”, and the title track. When you think these songs will zig, they zag, and violently at that. It’s that type of edge of your seat excitement I look for when listening to a progressive/technical metal album, and Nuclear Tomb nails it. They manage to achieve this by not just bombarding us with senseless virtuosity, but also laying down some killer hooks and riffs along the way.
For every tech death/thrash outburst scattered throughout this affair, there’s also a healthy dose of good ol’ fashion, head smashin’ death thrashin’. Take the short and anything but sweet “Fatal Visions” for example, whose lead riff was tailormade for the pit. The d-beat dominated “Vile Humanity” hits the spot as well, as does the Beneath the Remains era Sepultura vitriol of “Parasitic (Live a Lie)”. “Born into Torment” serves as the obligatory slab of Morbid Angel worship with its slow, demonic riffs, while the closing “Ashen Lamb” blurs the boundaries between thrash, death, and prog, bringing together every facet of this band in one final metallic blitz.
If the air raid sirens started blaring right now and explosions were going off in the distance, then Nuclear Tomb’s Terror Labyrinthian would be the perfect soundtrack for humanity’s demise. It’s chaotic within reason and brutal beyond belief. There is, indeed, a method to their madness. Towing the line between musical virtuosity and bludgeoning hooks, Nuclear Tomb offer a fresh, invigorating twist to the all too monotonous world of current death metal and all but dead thrash landscape. Rising from a pool of hazardous waste like the maniacal mutants they are, there’s no telling what metallic devastation they’ll be capable of in the future.
8 out of 10
Label: Everlasting Spew Records
Genre: Technical Death/Thrash Metal
For fans of: Voivod, Atheist, Dissimulator