Release Date July 14th, 2026
Format Digital/CD/Cassette
Genre Doom Metal
Origin USA
Mothertomb formed in Northern Michigan in 2025, with Alice Gawlinski on vocals, Chance Gawlinski on guitar, Alton Minor on bass and Mike Benitez on percussion. Its name grew from the devastation left by the April 2025 ice storm, when forests across the region were entombed in ice and power disappeared for weeks. That origin suits a band whose music joins physical doom riffs with spectral atmosphere. Traditional doom forms the core, joined by heavy psych, stoner metal, sludge, progressive movement and groove metal. Patient tempos and extended compositions define the approach, followed by sudden eruptions of aggression that place Alice’s eerie singing over low guitar tones and a blunt rhythm section.
Only a year separates the band’s formation from “Dying To Live,” and Mothertomb enters this debut with a developed direction. The music draws its character from rural isolation, occult dread and severe melody, arranged into songs that rarely hurry. The regional background is more than decoration; frozen solitude and woodland menace saturate the music. That combination marks Mothertomb’s early profile, although the influences are easy to trace. “Dying To Live” is a self released debut of five songs spanning about forty minutes. Sessions took place at Death Box Records in Charlevoix, Michigan during 2026.
Alton Minor produced the album with Mothertomb, mixed and mastered it, then shared engineering duties with Mike Benitez. Alice Gawlinski wrote lyrics centered on transformation, suffering, transcendence and the friction between darkness and illumination. Welsh folklore brings ancient spirits into the same space as inner demons, giving the imagery a specific cultural spine. The mix places the guitar in a broad, saturated mass; percussion strikes with funeral pace, the bass rumbles below, and Alice’s voice hangs above the riffs as a spectral counterpoint.
The sound is imposing, though separation suffers when every layer peaks at once. Long riffs and gradual dynamic shifts build tension. Psychedelic haze gathers around sustained chords, and progressive turns give the longer songs shape before sludge eruptions tear through the slower crawl. The album is at its most effective when doom riffing locks with the psychedelic drift; the groove gains menace beyond mere volume. Several stretches linger after an idea has peaked, draining momentum before the next change, and the bass loses definition beneath the fullest guitar layers. Those flaws prevent the album from reaching the lethal impact suggested by its heaviest moments.
Across most of the runtime, the writing is focused and the transitions retain tension. Melodies do not sweeten the gloom; they deepen it, and the lyrics place human pain inside folklore, steering the songs away from fantasy sketches. By the closing minutes, Mothertomb has built a bruising debut with a distinct atmosphere and a few editing issues. “Dying To Live” is grim, hypnotic and mature, with enough variation to justify its scale. It needs tighter cuts in its longest stretches, though its core is substantial and the next release now has a high bar to surpass.
|7.5
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