There are between five and ten moments on All Empires Fall where you incredulously wonder how it's possible to assemble so many unique, unexpected elements into such a foreboding and unforgiving whole. And, in the aftershocks that follow, you then wonder how it's possible that those disparate elements manage to co-exist so well, despite their vastly different starting points. If that description is triggering hipster connotations in your mind, disregard them: you can’t exactly hide the fact that Tombs is from Brooklyn, but the band has managed to avoid much of the hipster black metal venom that's greeted its contemporaries for good reason. Though the group's previous efforts have struggled with lengthy songs that take unnecessary tangents to their detriment, Tombs finds itself at its potential creative peak here on All Empires Fall, to pretty much everyone's surprise. We knew Tombs was good - but this strikingly, charismatically good?

It's about half-way through second track "Obsidian" when the enormity of this effort truly begins to make itself felt. After an aggressive black metal opening, "Obsidian" moves into riffs that are equally disorienting and minor key melodic, the moment then finding its apex in a monstrous, wide-eyed chorus. That's followed up by some of the most beautifully produced double bass this scribe has ever heard, the kick drums prominent, strong and clinical, all the while anchoring the massive riffs overtop them. “Last Days Of Summer” follows with its dragged-through-a-nightmare-forest dirge, underscored by inverted New Order-esque basslines that create utter obscurity where New Order would have shone light. As vocalist Mike Hill serenades in his Sisters Of Mercy croon, the song is taken to new depths.  “Deceiver” then opens with ominous bass and keyboards that give way to the song’s colossal riffs and eventually even a brief, but effective, open hi-hat pattern that’s both completely out of place but ideal in its suddenness. “V” ends the record in grim, grime form, the track channeling the most despondent keyboard passages found on Joy Division’s Closer, while incorporating unnerving atmosphere, third wave black metal, Sisters of Mercy (there’s that name again), and grey-days obsessed, post-punk melodic strains.

On previous albums, Tombs’ greatest weakness was its tendency to relinquish powerful moments to drawn-out passages that severely diluted the band’s impact. With All Empires Fall, the group has managed to write lean songs that bring its strengths to the forefront, those assets then encased in the near-perfect production of noted producer and USBM omnipresence Sanford Parker. If All Empires Fall’s massive leap forward turns out to be just the beginning of Tomb’s upcoming development, this collective’s legacy will be considerable indeed.