Tombal interview
Hi! Swedish death metal has become one of the most imitated sounds in underground metal. Before writing a single riff, what convinced you there was still something worth saying within that tradition?
Hi! First of all, thank you for inviting us to this interview. I've always been a lover and a true follower of the rawest and most rotten Swedish death metal, the real old-school stuff, and in August 2025 the spark that created Tombal finally came. We definitely don't want to invent anything new, but rather play what I've always listened to since I took my first steps into death metal as a kid, in all its forms, especially the Swedish scene of the '90s. So, we definitely don't want to be innovative, but we want to play and interpret death metal in our own way, with the sound we love above all: the HM-2. As you can clearly hear, there are many influences ranging from Swedish death metal to old school death metal.
Everybody talks about the HM-2, but it's only one ingredient. What's the first thing people get wrong when they try to write genuine Swedish death metal?
I think the first mistake is immediately associating Swedish death metal with bands like Dismember, Entombed, Grave and so on, as I think that's quite reductive. Nevertheless, from the very first listen, and especially because of the sound that characterizes Swedish death metal, everything inevitably leads back to these bands.
I think these bands influenced not only the Swedish scene, but extreme metal in general, both musically and stylistically, and above all in terms of attitude.
We definitely can't deny the influence these bands have had on our music, but perhaps the biggest mistake people make when they hear a Swedish death metal band is immediately associating it with the bands mentioned above, without digging any deeper.
The promo describes TOMBAL as "grave-risen", but you've only existed since late 2025. Did this band come together naturally, or was there a specific moment when all three of you realized you shared exactly the same vision?
Exactly. The band was born naturally, and above all, it was something that had been in my mind for years and years. In August, I immediately talked to Luca about whether he would be interested in forming an old-school Swedish death metal band. I especially remember an episode from years ago, when Massimiliano (our bass player) and I listened to “Scent of the Buried” by Interment, it absolutely blew our minds, and we were always talking about forming a band with that kind of style, and after all these years, we finally made it happen.
The term “grave-risen” is probably the most fitting term for us, because we literally rose again from a period of stagnation that all the members of Tombal had gone through. It was destiny.
Sixteen minutes isn't much time to make an impression. Was Grave of the Damned deliberately kept short because you only wanted to release material you completely believed in, or do you still subscribe to the old idea that an EP should leave the listener wanting more?
We wanted to do things "step by step", just like they used to be done many years ago. We really liked the idea of starting our journey with an EP, since it's a great calling card and a way to make the listener understand exactly what the band wants to express in every sense. We also wanted to keep this kind of length for every single track in order to give our music more impact and violence. Obviously, we are always 100% confident in everything we do, regardless of what it is, and we are very meticulous about every single thing, from the music to the graphics and our choices in general.
Blood Harvest picked you up almost immediately and already plans to release a full-length. Did that happen faster than you expected, or were you confident from the beginning that these songs would find the right label?
We are very happy with the work and collaboration that has developed with Blood Harvest. For us, it's an honour to have signed with such a historic label, one that releases great albums and, above all, has the right attitude.
We've always made our music without too many expectations and, above all, simply for ourselves, playing what we like. Fortunately, the audience responded very well and Blood Harvest immediately liked our single. That's how our collaboration came about. We are very satisfied and we're already entering the studio to record our first full-length album.
Early Swedish death metal wasn't just about chainsaw guitars - it had a certain dirt, swing and even punk attitude underneath the distortion. Which of those elements matters most to TOMBAL?
Exactly, we want to keep that dirty and raw production, but at the same time make it extremely powerful and violent. We are far away from plastic-sounding productions and we really like the dirt and the rot in the final result. For us, the most important thing is exactly this: playing in the most genuine and natural way possible, and the same goes for the production of an album. In some reviews, someone even wrote that, in their opinion, the EP could have easily been played all the way through as a single performance and they weren't convinced it had actually been recorded using multitracking. So, I think we achieved exactly what we were aiming for.
Plenty of bands faithfully recreate the Stockholm sound, but very few records survive longer than the initial nostalgia. What makes you believe Grave of the Damned has more to offer than simply reminding people of 1991?
I think “Grave of the Damned” was appreciated so much because it brings together many different influences. The Stockholm sound is mainly defined by the HM-2 effect but there are really many influences beyond the Swedish scene, such as old-school death metal in general, bands like early Morbid Angel, for example. We are all very attached and passionate about death metal in general and also Swedish black metal, for example. That's why we always try to introduce, especially through the guitar phrasing, an almost melancholic and diabolical vein typical of bands like Dissection or Dark Funeral, just to name a few, but interpreted through a death metal approach.
Your songs hit hard without overstaying their welcome. Was there ever a temptation to add more technicality or extra sections, or was the philosophy always to cut everything down to the essential riffs?
The truth is that we don't have any limitations or blocks during the songwriting process. More than anything, we like to play things direct and violent rather than getting lost in technicalities and other things that I don't think would fit our songs. We want to sound as vicious as possible while always maintaining a certain heaviness in the sound.
If someone played Grave of the Damned to an old Nihilist or Carnage fan without telling them it was recorded in 2026, what part of the EP do you think would immediately reveal its true age?
I think I would have them listen to both the title track and “Cathedrals of Rot”. They are also two bands I've been listening to since the very first years when I got into extreme metal, especially Carnage. Some people told us that we reminded them of Carnage when the EP came out, and that obviously made me extremely happy.
The full-length is already on the horizon. Is there anything you're deliberately avoiding on the album because you don't want TOMBAL to become just another "HM-2 revival" band?
No, we are not avoiding anything. We simply want to play what we like, and above all, this mindset has been received extremely well by zines and listeners in general. Actually, we've even added some riffs to a few tracks that are even more '90s Swedish, just to give you an idea. (Eheheheh.)
Outside of the obvious Swedish classics, what's one death metal record you think deserves far more respect than it usually gets - and why?
Even though I keep talking about Swedish death metal, I think there is an album that deserves to be held even higher within the genre: “Scent of the Buried” by Interment. It sounds like an album that came straight out of the early '90s, and that perfectly represents our mindset and attitude. Another death metal album that completely shocked me was “The Vile Conception” by the Italian band Hour of Penance, and I think that album could truly be considered a milestone in death metal in general.
Finish this sentence without overthinking it: TOMBAL stops being worth doing the day -
Tombal will stop making sense the day they kill us all. Until then, we will play raw death metal until the end of days. DEATH METAL IS ALIVE.