Bad Trip Meditation Music with the weird wild world of Tumanduumband!
Music Review:
Take a bit of Skrillex, then add a ton of doom-laden atmosphere — that feeling of walking through dark gloomy back alleys whilst a soundbite from a movie or whatever plays behind waves of sonic vibes plus a simple guitar. That’s the sense when you first set foot into the realm of Tumanduumband. Suddenly you get a feeling of Electric Wizard smashing goblets with old school gothic electronic stuff. That’s when the album truly kicks in.
Drummer, Luke Duum sent me the CD, a sticker or two, and a nice patch that’s ended up on my denim cut-off/aka battle vest whatever. The duo has only been around for about five years, but have played many gigs, putting on a dark show accompanied by mummified skeletons and much more. They are worth catching if they play nearby your home.
Throne of Grief attacks the senses with wholly various ingredients to begin with, the drums pound, noises are all over, in and out, swooping past, there’s so much going on. As track two, the title song, raises its goat head, it continues the same pulsing heaviness but breaks down to the simple cords again before amping up the fuzz.
We (My Partner in Gore, multi-instrumentalist, Willow, ‘n’ I) were reminded of ‘70s garage rock. In fact, I definitely felt Sleep’s Dopesmoker album (throbbing Black Sabbath style stoner metal — the album has basically one song lasting over an hour) with Hawkwind vibes. The bass drops in and out at various intervals, screaming electric guitar stabs come in, samples, etcetera, but by track three it all starts to become rather repetitive. We agreed it could all be seen as one long epic broken into chapters, and all would be great in a fucked up extreme horror movie! Either way, this is Bad Trip Meditation Music, right here.
Once track four, Each Birth a New Disaster, looms overhead, the tempo and delivery changes the album temporarily. “The background is heavy and full – I like that,” said Willow, “but aside from that, it’s just like tinnitus.” After a minute or so, everything slows down again, back to the Hawkwind/Skrillex scope, business as usual.
The intros are excellent, building you up, but then it’s mainly the same song after song of experimental identical tempo stuff. Tumanduumband are honestly like a late-night John Peel band (John, for those not in the UK, was a legendary late-night DJ that gave airplay to thousands of obscure undiscovered bands from all genres… ahh I miss those nights) soothing ‘n’ heavy, yet a bit hard to digest in one sitting unless you’re high or in a ritual trance. Fav tracks? Crushed Beneath Unfathomable Misery and Dread Lord — the noise and drums are fucking brutal!
I’m a fan of both doom and stoner metal ‘cause it’s the closest you can get to that dirty grim 70s sound, however Tumanduumband have one sound that is overused way too much. It throbs along showcasing they’re talented as hell, but there’s a serious lack of standalone song structure that many will find too dull. Willow named them the five cord band, but saying that, the grand finale picked her up, but the mix was too muddy to really detect everything going on. Shame. The mixdown has captured the 1970s obscure vinyl foggy sound, yet so much is muted. A third guitar would fatten the album.
I’ve played the album three times now, and can truthfully say it’s well worth a listen, the first ten minutes or so feel epic, but then afterwards fades into background noise to meditate to until one or two moments leap out to gut you with a jagged knife.
Check this video:
Here’s a link to their label (home of The Mountain King, Gawthrop, Weed Priest, and many more): https://www.cursedmonk.com/news
Their store: https://cursedmonk.bandcamp.com/merch
The band themselves: https://tumanduumband.bandcamp.com/music / https://www.facebook.com/tumanduumband/ / https://www.instagram.com/tumanduumband/
Album Info:
Band: Tumanduumband
Album: Throne of Grief
Members: Luke Duum (Drums, samples), Scott Cooper (Bass)
Produced by: Zegaphon
Recorded: Tide Studio
Artwork: Luke Duum
Year: 2023
Runtime: 44min
Label: Cursed Monk Records
Track Listing:
01. Crushed Under Unfathomable Misery
02. Throne of Grief
03. Black Ritual of the 25th Moon
04. Each Birth, a New Disaster
05. Landscape of Fear
06. Bizarre Tomb
07. Dread Lord
08. Colder than Death
