The sound of Glacial Tomb is hateful and dark. It is something of a less extreme version of Lord Mantis, but few bands are as extreme as Lord Mantis. The sound seems to be based in sludge metal, but with obvious leanings toward black and death metal, such as the vocal style and the occasional tremolo riff. But it is not nearly that simple. Glacial Tomb reaches out into a lot of different styles and genres throughout the run time of this release. The only constant is that it is dissonant and intense and ugly as all hell.
Unfortunately, in the band's efforts to combine a number of disparate genres into one big grab bag, the songwriting kind of suffers. I enjoy listening to the album while it is playing, but after it is done, I sometimes have difficulty remembering any particular passages or songs that really stuck out. It is not just the lack of hooks and catchy choruses, there just is not much truly memorable about this release. Certainly disappointing when the group has a member of Khemmis involved, a band who is infectious as fuck.
This is not a bad album, not by any stretch. It just doesn't stick when it's over. That's a disappointment. Glacial Tomb is fairly new yet though. In time, perhaps they will improve on that deficiency.
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