Band:	Tumanduumband
Album:	Throne Of Grief
Style:	Doom metal, Sludge metal, Stoner metal
Release date:	October 2023

01. Crushed Under Unfathomable Misery
02. Throne Of Grief
03. Black Ritual Of The 25th Moon
04. Each Birth, A New Disaster
05. Landscape Of Fear
06. Bizarre Tomb
07. Dread Lord
08. Colder Than Death

Tumanduumband (pronounced two-man-doom-band) are a two-man doom band from the West Midlands; the name concept is remarkable in its simplicity (even if the spelling isn’t), and the band’s music is similarly no-nonsense. However, ‘simple’ can be very effective when executed properly, and what Tumanduumband have produced on debut album Throne Of Grief is very effective indeed.

Formed 5 years ago in Stourbridge by bassist Scott Cooper and drummer Luke Duum, Tumanduumband released two pre-pandemic EPs (as well as an experimental lo-fi recording during lockdown) before arriving at the release of Throne Of Grief, their first full-length album, which comes courtesy of Cursed Monk Records. However, the duo have been building momentum during the preamble to its release, having performed at Bloodstock Festival in 2022. Nevertheless, they absolutely take things to another level with Throne Of Grief.

As far as bass-drum duos in the doomsphere go, many people’s minds may naturally go towards Om, and when I’ve seen Tumanduumband perform live, I have heard some of the stoner doom of Om’s earlier albums in their sound. However, while there’s many bands (particularly in styles such as post-metal) whose tone and intensity are taken to another level in a live setting, the inverse is arguably the case for Tumanduumband; the bass tone in particular on this album is absolutely monstruous, and the production in general is not just a big leap forward compared to the band’s early EPs, but stands out positively against most of their doom contemporaries.

It’s intriguing that this album came so soon after an album from another British bass-drum metal duo, London’s Modern Technology, as both bands have very distinctive yet similarly effective methods of using manipulation of the bass tone to fill the void (arguably) left by the lack of guitar, and in the case of Tumanduumband, that fiercely thick distortion, in combination with an emphatic drum sound, really maximizes the impact of these songs; the genre tag ‘pants shittingly heavy doom’ on Cursed Monk’s Bandcamp page for the album is very fitting.

When I had previously seen Tumanduumband play, their sound had come across as being closest to stoner doom, but on Throne Of Grief, they do sound somewhat closer to sludge metal. Part of that is due to having a malicious tone that is so ideal for that particular genre, but also there’s a bruising harshness to the pounding heaviness of songs such as “Throne Of Grief”. At times, such as in “Crushed Beneath Unfathomable Misery”, they also sound almost industrial with the steady tempo and huge cymbal smashes. At the same time, stoner metal is clearly integral to their sound, as exhibited by the fuzzy groove heard in “Landscape Of Fear” and the rowdier up-tempo passage later on during “Each Birth A New Disaster”. On top of all this, there are brief pauses to allow listeners to catch their breath, such as a short moment midway through the title track where the distortion temporarily fades to fit in a spoken word sample.

Throne Of Grief is a very solid full-length debut for the band; probably the only thing that can really be said against it is that the scope of its appeal may be somewhat limited. I think it would be fair to assume that Electric Wizard likely had some influence of Tumanduumband, and like the stoner doom icons, this duo do use spoken word samples (presumably from horror movies) on a few of the songs here. However, that is pretty much it in terms of embellishments; the album is all-instrumental, and outside of those samples, it is just the bass and the drums for almost the entirety of the runtime. This is by no means intended as a criticism, as it’s a formula that works very well; however, it does mean that listeners will be able to tell very quickly after the band first come in (following a 2-minute sample-laden ambient intro to “Crushed Beneath Unfathomable Misery”) whether or not the formula appeals to them, and if that initial sound doesn’t click with you, it’s very unlikely that any of the remaining 40-odd minutes will do much to alter your perception.

However, those who do enjoy the opening forays of Throne Of Grief can rest assured that they will continue to do so through the entirely of the album’s 45 minutes; the level of consistency across the record is high, and the impact of that beastly bass tone does not diminish over time. So, if the sound of some gnarly duum appeals to you, join the Tumanduumband cult and indulge in their rifftual.