At first glance, you might not think a doom band like Spain’s TodoMal and Huntington Beach’s Reel Big Fish have anything in common, but at the very least they both understand one thing about the world: everything sucks.  All jokes aside, Graveyards of Joy marks the third release from the Spanish collective, and also thematically closes out the musical trilogy begun on their oh-so-long-ago 2020 debut Ultracrepidarian.  Since then, TodoMal has enjoyed both critical and commercial success, and this release looks to be both the closure of one chapter and the opening of a bright future.

TodoMal is primarily the product of musicians and composers Christopher Wildman and Javier Fernández Milla, two veterans of the Spanish underground scene who came together to put a wide variety of their influences and personal styles together.  Influenced as much by the classic doom of Candlemass and modern Katatonia as they are by the classic rock of Pink Floyd and Hawkwind and the cinematic compositions of Ennio Morricone and even ecclesiastical music and Spanish folk, TodoMal has a hard time staying in one nice, neat genre box, which seems to be what has imparted upon them the success they have achieved.  In the intervening time between 2023’s A Greater Good, the duo has expanded into a proper quintet, initially for live purposes, but Graveyards of Joy marks the recording debut of the fleshed-out lineup, as well as a small cadre of guest performers.  The album, while being the final chapter of their initial musical trilogy, was written mostly in solitude following some unfortunate personal tragedies in the band family; it is also equally inspired by the project’s homeland, specifically Alcaria and Matarraña, two of Spain’s so-called “emptied lands”.  All of these seemingly disparate sources of inspiration come together to form a kind of spacey, atmospheric and cinematic doom that TodoMal categorizes as “widescreen”, and with good reason.  The nine tracks that make up Graceyards of Joy are all at once somber, emotive, and contemplative in tone and equal parts crunchy doom and airy atmosphere musically.

There really is no better opening thesis for Graveyards of Joy than “Mare Ignis”; it’s got everything that makes this album so great all wrapped up into a nice, concise bundle.  The backbone of thick, beefy doom lays down a solid foundation for the myriad synths and strings to carry the emotion and melody of the song as it lurches and plows through its movements and sections.  Perhaps my favorite part of the song is how the many vocalists in TodoMal come together to add to the already staggering number of layers present, but in a way that feels supportive and cohesive; Wildman takes the lead with a Dio meets Messiah Marcolin meets Roger Waters (maybe?) croon, and Milla effortlessly backs him up, but when their vocals meet a counterpoint from keyboardist Cecilia Tallo, the track explodes into the stratosphere.  When all the pieces of the puzzle come together like that, Graveyards of Joy is truly a thing of beauty, and there are quite a few moments where those pieces not only come together, but they come together in new and interesting ways that give each track its own life.  “Lucid Nightmare” begins life as a riff machine with lots of tasty lead guitar work, and ends up being an atmospheric space rock jam; the title track is probably the doomiest track on the album, but still features a Floyd-esque bridge that doesn’t feel at all out of time or place; and of course we have a folk interlude full of Spanish flair courtesy of “Misericordiah”.  There’s a lot to dig into in this album, and I have found something new each time I have gone back to take another listen, but all of it works in a way that really feels like not only a fully thought out piece of music, but a really climactic end to a story.

Well conceived, well written, well executed and well produced: I’m not sure there is anything more that I could be looking for in an album.  Graveyards of Joy stands as a unique release in the doom landscape that manages to snag some novelty in a genre that can feel repetitive and downright derivative sometimes.  Perhaps not everything is bad, eh fellas?  Graveyards of Joy is pretty damn bueno, if a white boy is allowed to say so himself.

— Ian

---

Graveyards of Joy is available now on Season of Mist.  For more information on TodoMal, visit their Facebook page.