I honestly don’t recall the last time the bass guitar caught my attention this quickly in a Death Metal record. On ‘Black Respite of Oblivion’, it’s not just playing, underpinning everything to add some bottom end like most. It’s up there with the guitars, sometimes straying off on its own, meandering through passages, and even some solos. I love when I can actually hear the bass, and Toughness takes that beyond the next level.
The guitars and bass are almost equal in the mix, and as the guitars spend a large amount of the song playing more higher pitched riffs rather than hanging out in the low end with their down tuned chugs, the bass gets plenty of room to breathe. Couple that with the high tuned snare drum and some just straight gruesome vocals, and you get one hell of a sound from the band.
Some of the passages are practically jazzy, with the bass and guitar on divergent paths that finally merge. One band kept popping into my head whenever that occurred: Demilich. Toughness has some of that quirky Finnish Death Metal personality, where the technicality shows up not only in mind bending riffs but also which the rhythm changes and how the sound comes together.
There is a ton to appreciate about this album. It’s forward thinking and it’s very well played, but it also just kind of kicks on and goes down just like an old Death Metal album should. And if you think you never get to hear the bass guitar in Death Metal, then this should solve that itch for you.
