Tehom – The Merciless Light (Blood Harvest)
Thursday, 20th April 2017
This probably matters to weak-of-brain journalists like yours truly, but Sweden’s Tehom only have a Myspace page to their online presence. Really, it’s a commendable approach; a veritable middle-finger to the ways in which bands routinely over-expose themselves on much more visible platforms. Of course, we’d be singing a different tune if this was 2007 when the platform was all the rage. Nevertheless, Tehom are a two-man black/death ensemble comprising of multi-instrumentalist Fredrik Helgesson and vocalist Master of the Watery Depths. The band’s The Merciless Light debut is a fairly diabolical helping of Morbid Angel-inspired black metal, if we’re able to make such a connotation.
To his credit, Helgesson has done a masterful job of riding the back of Trey Azagthoth’s guitar tone. Curiosity forever persists how Mr. Trey came up with his tone (listen to Covenant—it doesn’t get any better than that), so anyone who can come close deserves praise. In turn, Helgesson pushes his compositions forward with plenty of Floridian might, as so found on “The Smoldering Vessels” and punishing “With Patience and Faith.” The slower, grimy pace found on “Faith from Water” and rambunctious, Goatwhore-like push of “Voices from the Darkside” provide additional moments of blackened barbarianism.
In what is largely a determined, yet stock affair, Tehom are following in the old-school, occult-bred path of many of their countrymen on The Merciless Light. And for a band so properly dedicated to maintaining the old-school, underground ethos, it’s only right and just they’re using an outdated, archaic social media platform to show their wares.
