Of course, associated names like Slabdragger, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and Telepathy are going to draw eyes to Suffolk, UK’s Toom — also stylized all-caps: TOOM — and fair enough. The 2007-2010 three-piece no question has gone on to do some cool stuff. One that caught my eye as well though was Shrine 69, an apparently short-lived continuation of the partnership between Toom bassist Justin Smith and guitarist Teddy James Driscoll that I just happened to catch live at Desertfest London in 2012 (review here). They were pretty cool as I recall. I think I might still have a CD around somewhere. I have a couple Uncle Acid and Slabdragger records too, for what it’s worth. Ha.

Toom never had a release out during their time, but Behold the Basilisk was tracked over the course of an evening in 2010 and is set to see issue through APF Records on Oct. 1.

The PR wire has the story to tell:

APF RECORDS TO RELEASE TOOM’S ‘BEHOLD THE BASILISK’ EP

OUT 1ST OCTOBER / LISTEN TO ‘MANDARK’ NOW

Back in 2007 three long-haired teenage stoner doom fans naturally drifted towards each other in the depths of rural Suffolk. Hoping to avoid drowning in the sea of mediocre-metalcore and emo-misery that surrounded them, Teddy-James Driscoll, Jus Smith and Jack Newnham formed TOOM. This band was a short-lived and unproductive beast, but a beast nonetheless; a heavy, growling, riff-laden beast.

TOOM drew influence from Sleep, Iron Monkey, Mastodon, High on Fire, Acid King, Floor and Black Sabbath. In the months before the trio parted ways, they entered SAE Studios in London and in a single night recorded a monstrously heavy EP titled ‘Behold The Basilisk’. It was never released.

Following TOOMs messy divorce, Justin and Ted went on to form a band called Shrine 69 while Jack kept busy with his other project Meadows.

Since then, the members have joined or started a few other bands worthy of note. Ted went on to join Telepathy and has recently formed Cobra Lucha; Justin found fame with psych-rockers Purson and is currently a member of Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, whilst Jack went on to form Old Man Lizard and join the mighty Slabdragger. Commenting on the EP Jack states, “For us this release is a time capsule back to a long weekend, just over a decade ago. January 2010; one of the last months of a band we had formed as teenagers. It was the coldest January since the mid-80s and on the night we recorded it was -8° overnight in London, meaning that even the canals just outside the studio had totally frozen.

We smashed out all the tracks in one evening, at the studio which was part of the Uni our friend Jason (who recorded us) was studying at. I recall we had to dodge the security guards to crash in the studio overnight. The next day, we had rehearsals for a show, the day after that, at the legendary Crobar in Soho. My memory of that evening is a blur, but apparently it involved us getting a bus full of people getting kicked off of the bus because we managed to break the doors, Christ knows how.

We also ended up at the opening party for the, now equally legendary, Black Heart and at some point in the night Ted, our guitarist, got headbutted outside a corner shop. Exciting times.”

APF Records will be releasing TOOM’s EP for the first time on 1st October. Four massive tracks from the archives which have stood the test of time, and represent a time capsule of the nascent UK sludge / stoner / doom scene.

Pre-order now: https://linktr.ee/toomdoom

Photo above by Matt Morris.

TOOM was:
Jus Smith – bass
Teddy James Driscoll – guitar
Jack Newnham – drums & vocals

https://toomband.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/apfrecords
https://www.instagram.com/apfrecords/
https://apfrecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.apfrecords.co.uk/

Toom, “Mandark”