Track By Tracks: TOMBSTALKER - Chaos Monolith (2026)
1. Chaos Monolith:
The album begins with a cinematic intro that was crafted entirely by our drummer, Dustin Bjoltes (Storm Bolter), that conjures imagery in one’s mind of a sci-fi horrorscape. The sound of large vessels traveling in deep space, groaning and creaking. The sound of a docking bay and a ship preparing for warp travel, and the disorienting screams of a xenos in anguish. Think Ridley Scott vibes. This cinematic intro climaxes and goes right into the song's opening moments with big hits and a focus on sinister melodies. The rest of the song is mainly an arrangement of d-beat segments and heavy grooving mid-tempo parts with a giant outro that was styled after a more death n roll Wolverine Blues style ass beater riff. An unruly and noisy guitar solo shows up near the closing of the arrangement to end things on a chaotic note.
2. Inexorable Slaughter:
This is the first Tombstalker song where the majority of the riffs were written by Clay Rice (Gruftspüre). All guitar material up until this era of the band had been exclusively written by Anton Escobar (Conqueror Horus), so this song in particular marks a new milestone for the band in terms of the creative process. The song primarily focuses on d-beat crust sections, flashy leads, and hefty classic old-school Death metal sections. It’s a very straightforward, to-the-point song and showcases a little bit of everything Tombstalker does in one song.
3. Fully Armed and Filthy:
This is one of two songs on this new album that was rebooted from a much earlier era of the band. This song originally was released in 2010 on a split with a now defunct Dawn of Wolves from Cincinnati, Ohio, who later went on to become and are currently performing under the banner of Valdrin. Out of a lot of our older material, this is one of the songs we thought was quality enough to bring back for the newest era, and we felt like it deserved a proper recording because it was originally released under much more humble circumstances when the band was very young. This new version features dueling harmonies, additional solos, and is overall a more sophisticated take on the original, but it is still very much the same song. Those that remember us from the old days will appreciate the retrospective. As far as this song’s specific influences, I would say it’s more metal punk and perhaps even has some Japanese crust inspiration such as SDS as well as some Swedish melodic black metal with the dueling tremolo passages as well as big rocknroll energy not unlike Judas Priest.
4. Unto the Anvil of War:
This song wasn’t even originally supposed to be on the album, but we decided to add it at the last minute because we felt like the record needed filling out. The song was written in a very impromptu fashion and sort of just came about effortlessly. The only real formulation we did was that we wanted to do a song that was a bit more mid-tempo and crushing in nature and focused more on groove and heft as opposed to speed and technique. The main influences are clearly doomier in nature than most Tombstalker, and this was intentional to add more variety to the overall album impression. We drew upon oldschool death doom acts such as Cianide and Asphyx when we crafted this one. We also added some sound bytes of anvils being struck with hammers, and you will hear them if you listen closely during a few strategic spots.
5. Warp Storm Imminent:
This track is probably the fastest and most frenetic on the album. It kicks off with a very to-the-point quality and begins the second half of the album, so when you flip the LP you’re right back into the fray without any real delay or letdown in energy. I would also say this song in particular has the most black metal energy out of the entire album and has a lot of strong Swedish-inspired tremolo bits that might bring to mind certain acts such as Unanimated, Necrophobic, Dawn, etc.
6. Penitent Engine:
This song in particular fulfills the role of wild card for this album. It still maintains all of the elements that make Tombstalker recognizable, such as the groove-oriented crushing death metal that permeates the entire track, but what makes this track special is the overt industrial influences that creep into the mix. This is also the only song on the album that utilizes a synthesizer. Our goal with this one was to create a very dystopian atmosphere and draw upon more 80s influences such as Killing Joke and Amebix, as well as some 90s touches such as Chaos AD era Sepultura and Godflesh. Out of the entire album, this track probably pushes the boundaries the most, and showcases experimentation in ways the band hasn’t worked with yet, but it’s all still through the same classic Tombstalker approach and motifs that have come to define us.
8. Iron Within Iron Without:
This track is definitely the most melodic and flashy on the entire record. Some very obvious influences such as Gothenburg-style riffs ala At The Gates or In Flames easily come to mind. But to take it back even further, this all is just rooted in Iron Maiden and can be heard even more with Chuck McInyre's (Defiler) bass lines during the solo. These melodic, traditional-sounding parts are counterbalanced with a massive doomy intro as well as an aggressive Morbid Angel-style blasting passage halfway through. The song is longer in length and is a veritable riff feast featuring lots of colorful moments of variety throughout the composition, twisting and turning as it surges forth.
9. Eternal Enslavement:
This song was originally written in 2008 and was featured on several demos from that era. Just like with track number three, we decided to reboot this because we felt the song was too good to let it sit in the archives in such a raw state. It also provides a great retrospective for the old fans from the primordial era. However, this new version has additional solos, lead bits, and is much more dynamic in nature. Some standout influences for this track would be the galloping thrashing part that brings to mind early Unleashed and the climactic blasting section that has clear influences from early Necrophobic.
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