Album Premiere & Review: TOOMS, Karst
Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on May 28th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Limerick’s TOOMS release their new album, Karst, tomorrow, May 29, though Cursed Monk Records, Road to Masochist and Fiadh Productions. And while punishment isn’t the entirety of what they’re dealing out, for sure it’s a big part of it. The trio of guitarist/vocalist Alex Hölzinger, bassist Anto Donnellan and drummer/vocalist Kieran Grace readily cross the line between sludge and death metal — the later “Whitethorn” has a genuine 21st Century chugga-chugga breakdown; it’s very metal — to find an angle from which they might make brutality their own. This all is leading to the 11-minute culmination of “Physics Beyond the Standard Model” — one assumes that’s quantum, or maybe just a Blood Incantation acknowledgement — but it’s not like blast-prone opener “Blood Rust/Of Cudgel and Quill” or the gnashing angularity of the subsequent “Lowlander” are taking it easy. Maybe you caught wind of TOOMS‘ explain-the-acronym debut, The Orb Offers Massive Signals (review here), during the plague summer of 2020. The ensuing years have only seen them grow nastier.
So be it as “Tower of Silence” rises from its quieter start to meet lumbering distortion with gutturalisms. A somewhat cleaner vocal arises in the chorus — and that may be interplay between Hölzinger and Grace, I honestly don’t know — and words in trade with the verse, but they’re death-stench regardless of the surrounding mud. A layered lead prefaces the cymbal crash finish and
the first of three interludes, “Blue Angel” strums quietly ahead of the centerpiece “Drinkvlt,” which begins with a sample that says, “People say alcohol is a drug. It’s not a drug, it’s a drink” (from Brass Eye, the ‘Drugs’ episode) right into the riff, proceeding to manifest the dankest sludge delve of the record. Rightfully backed with respite, “Two Silver Pieces” is another instrumental strum interlude, loosely Western as the title clues with piano and a bridge into “Whitethorn,” which blasts early onto to slam later, as noted. The last divergence, the synthier “A Release of Tension” — please know it does not actually release the tension — before the finale comes in scorching on feedback for one last chug-riff kill.
“Physics Beyond the Standard Model” is something of an album unto itself, or at least it seems to be operating from a place between the various sides of TOOMS‘ sound, deathsludge and thrash and doom and even a bit of (bruised and beaten) progressive construction as it moves through its second half, layering guitars and such. But the band are never far removed from the rawness that draws the material on Karst together, and that thread running through the songs helps define what they’re doing each time out, fast or slow, pummeling or providing a moment’s shelter before, well, more pummeling, probably. Especially as the shape of side B is different than that of side A, with the two longer tracks each preceded by an interlude, where the first half of the album whallops you with the opening three cuts before letting you come up for air, Karst can’t really be summarized by any single track, but for sure the shape of the whole is lethal regardless of flow. Maybe all the more for it.
Karst streams in its entirety below, followed by more info from the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
Hailing from Limerick in the west of Ireland, Tooms’ progressive sludge metal has been evolving into ever more astounding forms since 2017. Bassist Anto Donnellan, drummer Kieran Grace and guitarist/vocalist Alex Hölzinger had been working together for four years prior to that, under the name of Gaia, but it was with the first Tooms single, ‘Simon Ferocious’, that their creative endeavours really began to gather momentum. Debut album, The Orb Offers Massive Signals, was released in the summer of 2020 on Cursed Monk Records and was warmly received by critics. Now the band are ready to reveal their second full length album – and while the weight and gloom remain prevalent, Karst shows Tooms spreading their wings and letting their collective imagination take flight…
Having recorded Karst with long-time collaborator Chris Quigley at The Meadow Studios, Tooms handed the task of mixing to Matt Bayles (Isis, Mastodon, The Sword etc) and mastering to Chris Fielding (Conan, Darkest Era, Hooded Menace etc) and the results are superb – nothing smoothed, no edges lost and everything possessing clarity, heft, emotion and atmospheric texture. Karst will be released on May 29th, on CD by Road To Masochist, vinyl by Cursed Monk Records, cassette by Fiadh Productions and on all major digital platforms. This is unmissable.
Also available on CD via Road To Masochist roadtomasochist.co.uk/store/tooms and Cassette via Fiadh Productions fiadh.bandcamp.com/merch
Line-up:
Anto Donnellan – Bass
Kieran Grace – Drums/Vocals
Alex Hölzinger – Guitars/Vocals
TOOMS, Karst (2026)
Cursed Monk Records on Bandcamp
Cursed Monk Records on Instagram
Cursed Monk Records on Facebook
Road to Masochist Records website
Road to Masochist Records on Bandcamp
Road to Masochist Records on Instagram
Road to Masochist Records on Facebook
