Three albums in, TODOMAL are still circling the same emptied ground — the ghost towns and depopulated provinces of rural Spain — and Graveyards of Joy is where that circling finally lands somewhere. It's the third record from the Anglo-Spanish duo of Christopher B. Wildman and Javier Fernández Milla, their first for Season of Mist, and the closing chapter of a trilogy that started with Ultracrepidarian in 2021 and thickened with A Greater Good in 2023. Forty-three minutes of slow-burning doom that earns its atmosphere.
The core duo built this record alongside Javier Félez, Javier "Bud" Martínez and Cecilia Tallo, the three who round out the band's live line-up. You can hear the extra hands in how full the arrangements get. Season of Mist calls this Atmospheric Doom Metal, and that's fine as a label, but it's only part of the story. Opener "Mare Ignis" drifts in on space-rock textures before the ethereal doom riffs kick in — there's SWALLOW THE SUN in there, a bit of SHAPE OF DESPAIR too, and it's easily the strongest moment on the record. What follows keeps shifting: some passages sit close to doom proper, others drift toward PINK FLOYD, and the band can go from SWALLOW THE SUN weight to KATATONIA melancholy within a few tracks. Songs stay distinct from each other but the album still hangs together as one piece.
Vocals are clean the whole way through — no growls, nothing dropping into a harsh register — which suits the material, particularly once the more progressive elements start showing up. "Misericordiah" is where the first half winds down: just two and a half minutes, quiet, built around acoustic guitar. "Unholy" is the pivot point after it, pushing the record toward a more gothic, progressive sound with something of ROME audible in the chorus structure and vocal delivery, before the track closes on heavier, darker riffs. "Deliverance," the longest cut here, opens with baroque-flavored guitar and church bells somewhere in the distance, both eventually swallowed by slow doom — the clearest ecclesiastical touch on the record.
By "For Mercy" the album has moved fully into prog metal territory — acoustic guitar, keys, AYREON and PINK FLOYD both audible across the track. Then the title track brings it home. It opens heavy, mirroring how the record began, but by its final stretch has turned into something lighter and almost symphonic, strings carrying it out. The grief that opened the album gets answered without anyone having to explain the arc — it's just there in the sound.
TODOMAL have a finished trilogy, a Season of Mist deal, and a European tour lined up. Graveyards of Joy is the record that should widen their reach — confident, genuinely felt, and holding together as an album rather than a collection of strong individual tracks.
Label: Season of Mist
Release date: 3 July 2026
Follow TODOMAL: Bandcamp · Facebook · Instagram · SoundCloud · Spotify · Apple Music · Deezer · Tidal
Promo courtesy of Season of Mist.