ZOM -Multiversal Holocaust (2013) | 70%

ZOM ZOM ZOM ZOM ZOM! Yeah!

Coming from the wretched country of Ireland, ZOM is a promising black/death metal unit and that's their third release. I never heard their previous offerings but judging from this short 7 inches, they still need to progress to achieve their own sound. Influenced by a plethora of extreme metal sounds, ZOM is interesting but not enough to rise the echelons to attain the bestial stardom.

I sure like a dirty and noisy production and this trio apparently do too. I'm actually not quite fond of how the drums are burying the guitars especially that they're not quite special or interesting. The riffs are quite decent, their production could have been sharper and heavier though. Influenced by classic black metal bands such as Nifelheim, Blasphemy or kvlt newcomers like Adversarial and the whole Nuclear War Now ! Lineup ! ZOM incorporates thrash elements in their music with really enjoyable trashy breaks reminiscent of Slayer or Sodom. These, despite my current aversion to most things thrash these days, were the most enjoyable moments of this release. They really drive the songs to new heights and I think ZOM is at their best when they slow things down a little and show some doom/death influences. With this said, I prefer having these tasty thrash riffs over mindless, inane and useless short blurbs called solos by Revenge. There's a short Kerrykingish lead at the end of the second track Terror of the Cosmos but like I said, it's almost completely buried under the production and the drums.

I also really appreciate their atmospheric tendencies and their short but tasty samples of lamentations and similar dark shit. I feel they're not quite apt at really using their occult atmosphere though, it feels incomplete and I'm sure they could serve a better purpose, the 2 songs are both almost six minutes but they could really reach the seven or eight minutes mark without any problems (and in fact, there's an 8 minutes version of the title track on their previous demo...too bad they edited the song!)

Both songs are stopping abruptly, I think they suffer from coitus interruptus. They could easily breathe better and have the sufficient amount of time to grow into full fledged epic numbers like Bôlzer who's also on Iron Bonehead records. I think there's an avalanche of riffs, yes, but it's way too condensed. Still, ZOM are good at building bestial and old school metal and at creating an eerie, occult feel throughout the 12 minutes release. As reflected by the great but simple album art, the band has a cool imagery but they need to push the envelope further with a stronger songwriting to reflect that.

I think ZOM (fuck, I like to say their name, ZOM, ZOM, ZOM!!!) has a lot of potential and I'm looking forward to their first full length album but for now, I can't say the band is ready to be Satan's house band. Get drunker, guys and do more complex evil incantations !

Buy the release here, thanks to Iron Bonehead for the promo copy!