Ramp is a five-piece thrash metal band from Portugal that have been around for nearly twenty years, constantly evolving and crafting strong material with unabated enthusiasm and vigour, despite all the recurring adversities that have been crossing their path. Their influence and importance within the context of the Portuguese metal scene cannot be denied, though outside the nation’s borders the band has been criminally neglected and have failed to achieve the same level of success.
Regardless of where their popularity lies, every album they’ve done has shown some signs of progression and refinement, which is why I can’t exactly tell why “Visions” sounds a bit lacklustre to my senses.
Taking six long years to materialize, “Visions” unfortunately sees the Portuguese quintet sounding too comfortable in rehashing most of the ideas explored on previous work “Nude”, dabbling with electronic elements and overusing catchy choruses to give a sense of immediacy to the songs. They certainly understand the concept of writing some killer riffs and catchy choruses and the first three tracks are all excellent examples of such approach. Opener “Blind Enchantment” has a musical structure that brings Disturbed to mind, firmly built around a skull-crushing staccato riffing and a memorable, yet awfully banal David Draiman-styled singing on the refrain. “Single Lines” follows the same pattern, with a punchy and catchy guitar work and vocalist Rui Duarte nicely detouring from his enraged growls to deliver a powerful and captivating clean singing on the chorus. “Amnesia” also meddles with such melodic hard-hitting formula with fairly enjoyable results, but doesn’t manage to distance itself from a sense of predictability that settles in half way though.
Elsewhere, besides “The Cold” a surprising theme bordering on a melodic Swedish-style riffing, there’s very little that stands out and forces you to sit down and pay attention. It’s replete with ordinary fillers, showing a band worn out and lifeless at times, stripped from fresh and interesting ideas. Personally, I think the band is much better than this so let’s just hope that “Visions” is just a less inspired record in their career and they’ll able to rekindle the creative spark that have made their previous records so damn worth listening to. (5.5/10)

Band info: www.myspace.com/rampmetal
Label info: www.metronomo.net

Formed by underground veteran Mike Hill (whose past credits include Anodyne and Versoma) less than two years ago, US trio Tombs has already made a reputation for themselves as one of the most interesting and audacious acts of today’s post-metal/sludge scene. “Winter Hours” their Relapse Records debut will surely do nothing less than strengthen their rise in popularity as it will hardly disappoint anyone already familiar with their sonority.
The ten tracks on “Winter Hours” contain a much broader range of textures and pace than their self-titled debut, resulting in a more entertaining and eclectic sonority that owes as much to Neurosis-inspired hypnotic heaviness as to raw and filthy Norse black-metal. It’s exactly here that relies the most striking change to the band’s sound in the new album as there’s a wealthy dose of black-metal riffing permeating Hill’s guitar playing that gives “Winter Hours” a whole different and malicious atmosphere than Tombs has ever exhibited before. Second theme “Golden Eyes” is a shinning example of such heightened emphasis on black-metal with drummer Justin Ennis firing away furious blast-beats and Hill adopting a more caustic and faster riff-style that perfectly counterbalances his denser and Godflesh-influenced playing.
As stated before there’s a great diversity of style here and “Merrimack” my favourite song from the entire album sees Tombs leaning towards a more harmonious and hazed atmosphere, with a warm and haunting tone creeping in the guitars that brings memories of Justin Broadrick’s work with Jesu.
Another noticeable change is just how diverse and interesting the vocal performance of Hill has become. The inclusion of a deep, almost clean vocal-style close to Jaz Coleman from Killing Joke (clearly apparent on “Divide”), in addition to his more typical enraged roars and screams makes the whole experience a lot more interesting and compelling.
Tombs is definitely a band on the rise and although “Winter Hours” is not a perfect album it clearly proves that the best of them is yet to come. (7.5/10)

Band info: www.myspace.com/tombsbklyn
Label info: www.relapse.com

In the acclaimed J. R. R. Tolkien’s fictional tales of the Middle Earth, the mûmakil were described as pachyderms akin to mammoths, beasts of gigantic proportions with blood-red eyes and monstrous tusks highly feral and nearly indestructible in battle. In the realms of Grindcore, Mumakil are a four-headed collective from Genève - Switzerland, nowhere close to resembling the creatures imagined by Tolkien, though perfectly capable of storming a similar havoc and mayhem with their ultra tight and ferocious grindcore onslaught.
While I’m obliged to concur that it’s a pretty fitting name that somewhat summarizes the band’s sonority, it’s nevertheless a bit strange to see a Grindcore act picking a name from one of the tales of a fantasy author like Tolkien. Does drummer Sebastien Schacher better known as Seb agrees with such observation?

“Eheh thanks for this description! Well yes the name ‘Mumakil’ is a good image to represent our music, that's why we chose it. Grindcore bands usually take gore, brutal or anti-politically-oriented names, you're right. But we simply have nothing to prove with such a name… It's just like, take this huge Mumak on your face and goodbye eheh.
We also chose that name because actually the Swiss Government secretly possesses several Mumakil as weapon of mass destruction...”

Up to this point you should have guessed that Mumakil is not an ordinary Grindcore act. While many grindcore bands of today deal with tales of zombies and gore, the band prefer to express their disgust and rage at today’s sickening and decadent world. A more thoughtful and down-to-earth approach to their lyrical content, definitely closer to bands like Napalm Death and Nasum than acts like Carcass or Regurgitate.
What can you tell us about the lyrical subjects Mumakil is dealing with on the new record “Behold the Failure”?

“As you said, we prefer dealing with political or social problems through our lyrics. We don't have any interest in gore lyrics. For that you just have to see the latest "SAW" movie and you can get your daily gore dose. It's ok for us. "Behold the Failure" is an insult to a lot of things or persons we dislike: war (Parasites), cops (Pisskeeper), apathy of the masses (Brothers in Slavery, Whip Reward) and more…”

“Behold the Failure” is the band’s debut for independent label Relapse Records, following their relatively unknown work “Customized Warfare” on a defunct label called Overcome Records. What were your first reactions when Relapse approached the band with a record deal?

“We were very excited of course. Relapse is the biggest name in extreme music and released such sick bands as Nasum, Brutal Truth, Dillinger Escape Plan, Dying Fetus etc. We're really proud to be signed to this label but there's still a lot of work for us to do like promoting the new album with tour dates, etc. We like that. It's an extremely motivating challenge.”

What’s been like since you signed up with Relapse, have you noticed a surge in interest in the band since that?

“Yes we did, mostly on internet supports like Myspace, Facebook, which is actually normal because Relapse works a lot on distribution and promotion. We also have a really positive feedback from fans about "Behold the Failure".”

Do you think it was a bigger challenge for the band this time around to write and a record this new record, knowing that it would have the Relapse stamp on it and consequently a bigger exposure?

“Of course yes. We worked very hardly at the studio to produce our best album so far. But the writing process evolved naturally. We didn't change anything in our music just because we're a Relapse Band. They were waiting for something that sounds like Mumakil. We remain free in our writing process, that's a really important point.”

“Behold the Failure” was recorded at the band’s rehearsal room located at guitarist’s Jerome house and it seems to favour a more Crust and Punk approach to Grindcore in detriment of the more Death-Metal tendencies that characterized the band’s previous work “Customized Warfare”, do you agree? What have you guys done differently with this new album in comparison to its predecessor?

“Yeah, but ‘Customized Warfare’ was also recorded at the same place. We just evolved in our musical approach of grindcore. I mean, we pay a lot of attention to all the details through our tracks and we devote the necessary time to get the result that we expect. Our music came more grind than death-metal because we like even more the punk approach of grindcore, it's more energetic and goes straight to the goal. We're also big fans of death-metal bands like Morbid Angel, Behemoth, Nile... Maybe in the future we'll add more brutal death-metal elements, I don't know. "Behold the Failure" is just the result of our current inspiration.”

Do you guys still have a very independent DIY attitude towards their music and the things surrounding it or you’re letting Relapse stepping up to help the with some issues like promotion, booking and so on?

“Relapse takes care about everything around the new album regarding promotion, distribution and also gives us a hand for the booking. But we're still doing the booking by ourselves, for now it's easier for us to deal with it in that way.”

So what kind of roles each of the band members have besides playing their instruments to keep the engine functioning and running?

“Tom (vocals) and I are taking care about the booking. Guitar and bass players bring beers to the practice room. And oh sorry... They’re also responsible for the riffage in Mumakil.”

Lavishly acclaimed by fans and media, “Winter Hours” the debut full-length record from Brooklyn-based trio Tombs is unquestionably one of the most gratifying listens you’ll experience during this extremely productive year of 2009.
Displaying a compelling amalgamation of a wide variety of sounds and textures, which makes it excessively hard to pigeonhole into a category, “Winter Hours” sees band founder and underground veteran Mike Hill reaching the zenith of his song writing abilities.
It seems like after all these years spent laboring in bands like Anodyne and Versoma, the guitarist and vocalist is finally getting the recognition he deserves. Are you surprised with all the amazing reactions garnered by “Winter Hours”?

“Yes, I’m extremely surprised that people are so receptive to the record. You never know if anyone is going to be into what you do so, we’ll all overjoyed by the amount of positive feedback we’ve gotten so far.”

As stated above, Tombs haven’t been thrown into a spotlight position overnight and anyone thinking that is either a fool or completely ignorant of Mike Hill’s background in noise-hardcore act Anodyne and hardcore-shoegazing project Versome. Throughout nearly two decades, Hill has played in those two underground bands, the criminally underrated Anodyne formed in Boston in the early 90’s and the short-lived project with members of Lickgoldensky, Versoma.
Although it’s perceptible to hear some influences from his earlier projects throughout “Winter Hours”, Tombs is supposed to be completely different proposition. What were your first intentions and what paths did you wanted to explore musically when you first started this new band?

“There was a kind of overlap between Tombs and Versoma. When Jamie told me he didn’t want to continue doing the band, I was working on material for Tombs less than a week later. Some of the early Tombs material has a similar feel to Versoma because a lot of the riffs were ideas that I had been working on for Versoma.
As the years go by, my involvement with music has become increasingly single-minded. I don’t really collaborate well with people so my goal with Tombs was to follow my own instincts and create something that is true to who I am.”

“Winter Hours” was met with tremendous enthusiasm from a vast number of old and recently converted followers, and to a certain extent their record label is partly responsible for pushing Tombs forward, it’s a fact that any release branded with the Relapse Records stamp is bound to turn quite a few of curious heads towards its direction. How did Tombs ended up signing with one of the most respectable and independent record labels of today and have you noticed a surge in interest in the band since that?

“I’ve know Gordon Conrad for almost a decade. The early Anodyne records were released on his label Escape Artist Records back in the late 90’s. We’ve maintained our relationship and I’ve more or less kept him in the loop with what I’ve been working on for the past several years. Tombs was preparing for a short tour after the release of the first EP; we had demoed some new material so I sent a copy down to the guys at Relapse who seemed interested in seeing us live. On tour, we played in Doylestown, PA which is nearby to the Relapse headquarters. Gordon came to the show and within a few months we were signing a contract.
Having Relapse on board has definitely helped raise the profile of the band. Being a music fan myself, I pay attention to labels and what new releases are coming out etc. So being a “New Relapse Band” probably put us on the radar of some folks.”

I’ve read somewhere that you’ve started writing this new album from scratch, without rehashing old ideas or sketches that might have been laying around. Did this type of “tabula rasa” method kind of give you the opportunity to explore new sounds and new possibilities for this new record?

“Definitely; at this point, I feel like Tombs has a distinctive identity and focus. On the first record I was wrestling with the ideas of being “melodic” or being “brutal.” The solution is to be both at the same time.”

It’s hard not to notice that you’ve incorporated a more black-metal riffing into the new songs and that your vocalizations are more diverse and dynamic than before. What made you go even further in this direction than in previous works?

“I’ve always been a huge black metal fan so some of the elements have crept into the songwriting. I’m really into bands like Leviathan, Lurker of Chalice and the more atmospheric artists. In a lot of ways, those bands have more similarities to My Bloody Valentine, Death in June than the typical corpse-paint bands. That’s not to say that I don’t love bands like Watain, Horna etc. The main element that I respond to in black metal is the emotional feel to the music and the central theme for Tombs is emotional expression therefore it makes sense that I steel from black metal.
As far as vocals go, I just want to continue to grow as a singer and push myself as much as possible. I just want to be versatile.”

With “Winter Hours” Tombs have obtained an excitingly dynamic and unique sonority, clearly drawing influences from a wide variety of genres and artists, that’s extremely hard to determine the best and most suitable description.
What is the most laughable and erratic description you ever saw used to define Tombs’ sound?

“I find it funny that people compare us to Mastodon. We’re not blues-based at all nor do we have any Thin Lizzy guitars riffing going on.
One clever writer for the Village Voice once described us as “Sky-Gazing-Life-Metal”; I guess that’s what you get when you pay somebody by the word.”

The lyrics on “Winter Hours” are no less important than the music and in fact I’ve read that the words for the songs come first and the music later, is that right? What ideas or messages are you conveying through the songs?

“The lyrics come first because they are derived from journal entries and notes that pre-date the composition of the songs. The lyrics for ‘Winter Hours’ dealt mainly with dear and anxiety mostly inspired by the last 8 years of living in a country being ground into the dirt by an idiot.”

Hill always was very active within the music scene and currently besides fronting his main band also maintains two side-projects going, namely King Generator and Vasilek, and a record label called Black Box Recordings. What’s happening right with these two projects and the label? Are there any bands out there that you want to record?

“King Generator is kind of on hold until me, Dave and Jamie can clear our schedules to record some material and play some shows. It’s hard because we all live in different cities and Jamie lives in the UK. When Tombs were touring in Europe, Jamie told me that he had some new riffs so I’m ready to roll when those guys are. Vasilek is still developing. I have about four songs in various stages of completion. My goal is to have something out this summer, maybe a cassette or some kind of limited release. I don’t imagine that there will be a huge demand for the Vasilek material.
The latest release on Black Box Recordings is the TOMBS / PLANKS split 12-in repress. The next release is the DEAD IN THE WOODS / DIET PILLS split 12-in. I’m working with this loose concept of doing a series of split 12-in with mp3 drop cards. My long term plan is to get away from cd’s all together.”

More info at: www.myspace.com/tombsbklyn