Death metal band Tomb Mold are rightfully garnering recognition for their The Enduring Spirit album, recently gracing the cover of Decibel magazine. But in the process of doing so, the group received several jabs online from death metal fans calling out what they perceived to be an unfitting look.
It all started innocently enough with the band members posing for the magazine cover, with Decibel noting, “Death metal progressives Tomb Mold dominate their first Decibel cover in honor of their hot-from-the-oven LP The Enduring Spirit!”
But the social media comments started to roll in. One poster noted, “These dudes look like they wanna lecture me on chainlink or some other crypto.” Another noted, “What the fuck does the cast of Deadwood have to do with death metal?” But the comment that seemed to stir up the most sentiment was one poster who noted, “I like the new Tomb Mold record a lot. But death metal bands really need to understand that getting your picture on a magazine cover fucking means something, and meet the moment. Death metal needs more Akercockes, and fewer examples of…this.”
The band’s Max Klebanoff and Payson Power then got involved with the discussion, with Klebanoff remarking, “We are literally wearing just t-shirts and shorts in that photo. Why does anyone care. Wait until you see the whole feature.” “Why would I want to be something that I’m not,” asked Power, who also directly addressed the commenter who questioned their look. “If this is how you feel about Tomb Mold after seeing what we look like, by all means, stop listening to our band,” he stated, adding, “That cover photo is a completely authentic portrait of who we are. Why would you want us to be anything but? This is no judgment towards the mighty Akercocke, one of the most interesting and ambitious extreme metal bands of our time. I believe they’re just as sincere as we are.”
Decibel Magazine also re-entered the conversation, pointing out some of the commentary online and noting, “The ‘name three songs’ thing take to its stunning conclusion.” In their posting on X, they screen shotted a KEN Mode comment that stated, “KEN Mode – People talking shit on Tomb Mold’s clothes on @dbmagazine, what the hell is actually going on here? Y’all are mad they look like regular people? Like actual fans of music and not laughable comic book characters?,” while someone in turn responded, “Name 5 people you know that have handlebar mustaches. They do not look like regular people.”
While there were some initially questioning the band’s look, they also had their fair share of fans stepping up to support them as well.
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While their magazine cover look may have people talking, the music is what got them on the cover in the first place. Be sure to check out The Enduring Spirt album, currently available here.
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