Stömb is ready to rage.
Since 2012, the band has been moving towards a modern and instrumental Metal, finding a niche audience. In 2023, Aurélien De Freitas (guitar), Alexandre Garachon (bass), Tom Bonetto (guitar) and Tom Gadonna (drums) sign with Klonosphere for the release of Massive Disturbed Meta Art, their third album.
What is Stömb? I personally discovered the band on stage, and although I usually have only very low affinity with long instrumental parts, their universe between Djent and Prog impressed me. Halfway between the aggressiveness of Meshuggah, the complexity of Tool and much stranger influences borrowing from Trip-Hop and other sonic oddities, we find ourselves facing a block of more than an hour of massive and uninterrupted sound. But the band will break its rule by inviting Laure Le Prunenec (Rïcïnn, Corpo Mente, ex-Igorrr) on The Realm Of Delirium, the first track, to place her worrying voice, giving to the dark composition a very heavy atmosphere, before coming back to a mix between jerky rhythmics and soothing cybernetic atmosphere, creating a rich musical singularity.
While each track obviously has its particularity, whether it is in the used patterns, the alternation between influences or only its creative approach, like the long ambient part of Kaleidoscope, hugely contrasting with the continuation of the track, becoming much more violent, the group also called upon three other musicians to help them to feed their unique universe. For example, the saxophone of Norway’s Jørgen Munkeby (Shining, Emperor… ) on Meta Art, giving the track a dark, melancholic and heady Jazz touch, but also Leo Natal (The Dali Thundering Concept) on the tracks The Extantrasy and An Absence Of Sun, which the guitarist co-wrote in addition to placing his crushing guitar to the soft and airy basis, then finally Quentin Godet (Ten56, Kadinja) for Transcendence, the last track, in order to place a solo worth the greatest Heavy Metal names.
To summarize Stömb’s universe would be both impossible and pure heresy. The tracks follow each other but don’t look the same, making Massive Disturbed Meta Art a rich, unpredictable album, and although a bit long, it remains captivating.
85/100