Artist: Tumba
Country: Colombia
Label: Destruktion Records / Inframetal Records / Vociferos Malditos Producciones
Formats: Cassette Tape / CD
Year: 2025
After a good amount of short players and splits, Tumba from Bogatá, Colombia thought it was about time to treat humanity to its debut full-length album. That materialized in ‘Blasfémico Resplandor’, released on CD by Inframetal Records and in two different versions on cassette tape by Destruktion Records from Germany and Vociferos Malditos Producciones from Bolivia. Besides being a first album, on many other fronts it is also a clear milestone in the history of Tumba, which goes back some 12 years. First of all, with the addition of Destruktion Records, this is the first Tumba recording to be slightly easier to get outside of their native Colombia or surrounding countries. But, on a musical level, as far as I know, this is the first new recording of the band with drummer Geovanny Fandiño, consequently ending Tumba’s existence as a one-man band.
But, although the band now operates as a duo, the musical direction has been further explored. The earlier output of the band could obviously best be labelled as Black Metal, but gradually the band shifted towards a more classic Heavy/Speed/Thrash Metal flavoured Black Metal. ‘Blasfémico Resplandor’ is, so far, the best example of the band’s widening musical vision. There still might be much of the classic first wave Black Metal to be found basically everywhere, it is hard to deny Hellhammer’s presence in songs like ‘La Espiral Siniestra’ or ‘Antirreligión’, but the strong Heavy Metal vibe is equally hard to miss. Especially a lot of the German-style rough-‘n’-ugly Heavy Metal like early Running Wild, Rage or Tyrant and much of the German Thrash Metal tradition is shining through in Tumba’s current compositions.
The latter is not only heard in a direct comparison of riffs and song writing, but is mostly felt in the overall atmosphere and crudeness of the music. Everything sounds really pure and spontaneous, clumsy, rough around the edges and just utterly captivating for its clear sincerity. Consequently, and you might have guessed it, there is literally zero originality to be found on any of these ten songs. Even for the current Black/Speed- or Black/Thrash Metal standards the whole thing is pretty ruggedly constructed, but that is exactly where the charm of Tumba lies, and to some extent of the entire sub-genre. Add some very rough-and-loud-in-the-mix vocals and you have a solid, uncultured South American fistbanging mania.
