TOOMS – The Orb Offers Massive Signals (Review)

TOOMS are an Irish progressive sludge metal band and this is their debut album.

Combining elements of sludge, doom, drone, stoner, and hardcore, with progressive and psychedelic touches, The Orb Offers Massive Signals contains 56 minutes of individual and well-crafted sludge nastiness.

Despite the usual pointless intro that so many bands feel compelled to include on their albums, when the first song proper starts – Mantra at Dawn – we’re off to a subtle, mood-building start, one that would have been a far better beginning to the release. The song revolves around doom/drone that has a stoner edge, and is darkly hypnotic and atmospheric. The song serves as an impressive gateway to what is a rekatively diverse and individual collection of tracks.

From atmospheric beginnings, Megalobong brings the sludge metal heaviness in no uncertain terms. So does the next track Zipperface, albeit in a more atypical way, with strong Today Is the Day-meets-Buzzov.en vibes.

Stampede mixes a lumbering heaviness, with bursts of unhinged ferocity and violence. Then, after a brief interlude track, One Ton Soup spends seven minutes dishing out rumbling brutality that slowly fades to ambient beauty.

Krokodil Den moves the pace upwards once more, and is all jagged riffs and bristling groove, followed by the punk-fuelled Atilla the Pun. The album closes with the 11-minute epic Retrograde/Ode to an Orb, which is full of heavy psychedelia, swampy atmosphere, and progressive character.

TOOMS present the listener with an underground journey into sludgy heaviness and murky darkness, and its a journey worth taking.

A recommended listen.