Release Date: 29th May 2026. Record Label: Various. Formats: CD/Cassette/DD/Vinyl
KARST - Tracklisting
1.Blood Rust of Cudgel and Quill
2.Lowlander
3.Tower of Silence
4.Blue Angel
5.Drinkvlt
6.Two Silver Pieces
7.Whitehorn
8.A Release of Tension
9.Physics Beyond The Standard Model
Members
Big Al- Guitar & vocals.
Anno- Bass
Gracious K- Drums & vocal
Review
Doom/Sludge Metallers TOOMS offer their second album Karst has a lot of great talent behind the scenes bringing the band's nihilistic vision fully to life. You have the legendary Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Pelican, Russian Circles) on mixing duties and mastering handled by the masterful talents of Chris Fielding (Electric Wizard, Conan, Primordial) which makes up for a powerful and destructive combination. TOOMS themselves bring their own dynamically powerful and brutal sound that’s held together by Doom, Sludge, Death Metal, Stoner Metal, Psych and grounded Post-Metallic themes that adds a line of Prog Metal into the mix.
The album has an highly unapologetic sound with TOOMS moving away from their Stoner Metal sound they played briefly on their earlier releases. Karst feels like a band finally discovering the music they were meant to play which is full of death growls, ambient melodies and harsh backdrops that morph into something more cerebral within the stunning opening tracks of Blood Rust Of Cudgel And Quill, Lowlander and Tower Of Silence. You can hear the likes of Mastodon, NEUROSIS, ISIS, Cult of Luna, CONAN, THOU and WEEDEATER being used for creative reference but TOOMS are wise enough to play a seedy backdrop of Post-Metal surroundings which adds extra grit, dirt and pure brutality throughout the album.
The music is at its most powerful and emotionally gut-wrenching when TOOMS play a style of modern day Post-Metal which is merged with pitch black ferocity with that Death Metal aspect fully shining through with massive amounts of technical beat-downs and psychedelic sounds developing behind the scenes. Some of the instrumental passages have an Industrial Metal and Drone Metal vibe which is laced with that Thrash Metal and Extreme Metal energy that has an ice-cold Post-Black Metal attitude not being too far.
Clean vocals do appear within the record but they’re quite violent when compared to the more extreme styles used for the majority of the album. That may sound strange but TOOMS manage to add another layer of intense violence even within the quieter aspects of the whole album.
Karst moves along at a cracking, aggressive and highly addictive pace with certain sections being quite experimental on the later stages of the record. However, TOOMS actually play a great still of riff-driven music as the album contains a high amount of wonderful instrumental passages which even allowed me to drift quite easily into full on“headbanging” mode that always leave you one thousand percent fully satisfied.
Other standout tracks to check out are: Blue Angel, Drinkvlt, Two Silver Pieces, A Release Of Tension and Physics Beyond The Standard Model. As these moments have some highly original psychedelic tendencies which moves the album into some highly unexpected musical waters you’ll be surprised to fully encounter.
There’s some perfectly placed dark humour spliced throughout the album which shows that TOOMS know how to have some demonic fun when the time calls for this. Karst is a technically impressive album from the very start with TOOMS proving what great musicians they really are by playing a wide range of different HEAVY METAL sounds that’s mostly told through the power of the Doom/Sludge Metal underground scene.
KARST can only be described as an absolute MONSTER that’s jam packed with brutal gigantic sounds that destroys everything within its wake. TOOMS have a vivid, expansive and highly unpredictable nature hidden within their music which allows the listener to be part of this brilliantly intense and pissed off musical journey they won’t forget about in a long time to come.
Words by Steve Howe
KARST is available to buy from the links below:
Links
Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram
