It’s early, but Tombs’ excellent Winter Hours is one of those albums I know will be with me when the calendar’s about to shift and it’s time for end-of-the-year lists. The Brooklyn trio’s Relapse debut blends New York hardcore intensity with blackened atmospherics and extended shoegaze textures. They’re a blistering live band piloted by Black Box Recordings’ Mike Hill — ex-Anodyne, Versoma — who’s as apt to pull from Leviathan, Wold, and Deathspell Omega as he is Joy Division, Man Is The Bastard, Rorschach, Birthday Party, Swans, Helmet, or Jesus Lizard when creating Tombs’ singular sound. You can pick the influences out, but the band takes them somewhere new: See, for instance, the Kevin Custer-directed video for the icy, pummeling opening track and first single “Gossamer.” If you think Jesu’s gotten too wimpy, Tombs might just do the trick.


(Via P4K.tv)

You can read some behind-the-scenes info at Hill’s blog.

Winter Hours is out 2/17 via Relapse. You can hear more at Tombs’ MySpace. As of today they’re on tour now with labelmates Dysrhythmia (one of Colin Marston’s super-technical non-Krallice bands, Krallice fans). The dates:

02/02 – Boston, MA @ The Church
02/03 – Albany, NY @ Savannah’s
02/04 – Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool
02/05 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
02/06 – Baltimore, MD @ Talking Head
02/07 – Richmond, VA @ Nara Sushi
02/08 – Washington, DC @ Velvet Lounge
02/20 – Wilkes-Barre, PA @ Café Metropolis
02/21 – New York, NY @ ABC No Rio #
02/21 – Brooklyn, NY @ Death By Audio %

# w/ Black Anvil, Woe
% record release shoe with Defeatist and Engineer