FMA: Coffins: The Fleshland (2013)

Originally reviewed here.

Coffins is what you would get if you played Hellhammer at half speed on your record player. Seriously. The Japanese death/doom trio plays a slow, sludgy, dirgey style of metal that sounds like the soundtrack to the darkest, most disgusting zombie movie imaginable. Coffins is one of the most prolific bands going and releases multiple recordings every year. It has to be exhausting to have to write and record new music this often, but it does not seem to bother Coffins much. Each new album sounds fresh, in a rotted, exhumed corpse sort of way.

This is actually only Coffins' fourth full-length album since their formation in 1996. They typically release their material in the form of EPs and splits. This is also the band's first full-length on a label with a wider audience as Relapse has picked up the band for this release. Whether this results in the band becoming more well-known remains to be seen.

Coffins presents their typical album here. Their songs tend to alternate between the slow deathy dirges with a ton of distortion and a tense atmosphere to songs with more of a galloping, faster-paced crunch. The one constant is the decayed, rumbling croak of band mainstay Uchino. The best songs are typically the ones that combine the groove-driven, faster sections with the disturbingly creepy atmosphere present in the slower tracks. "No Saviour" stands out as one such track. Then there is "Dishuman", which is the fastest track I have yet heard from Coffins, and comes perilously close To Mega Therion-paced Celtic Frost early in the track before descending into the murky sludgy pace the band typically uses.

This is one of the tighter recordings that I have yet heard from Coffins. Oftentimes the band tends to drift a little with the slower tracks into an almost hypnotic, trance-inducing sound and long drawn-out sections. Those are largely absent on this release. Instead each song flows about as well as this type of metal is capable of. The band has a better grasp on what they want to achieve this time around and are able to do so effectively. That makes this a much more enjoyable overall listen than albums past.

I have been a fan of Coffins for quite a long time, but this is undoubtedly one of the best albums I have heard from the band. Coffins has ceased to be a band in search of an identity. They have embraced their Hellhammer-laced-with-valium style and tightened up their sound.

Happy Halloween: Here's Some Lovecraftian Album Art

I love the works of H.P. Lovecraft.  I know that I am not alone among metalheads in that.  So here is some cover art clearly influenced by the works of H.P. Lovecraft.  Some of these are obviously Lovecraft's creatures, others just have the same feel.

My 100 Favorite Metal Bands Pt. 21: Coffins

Well, since I just covered this band yesterday, I do not feel I need to go into any more detail.

FAVORITE ALBUM: BURIED DEATH

My Favorite Metal Band from Japan

There are not a lot of bands from Japan that I am aware of. Obviously there is the avant garde metal band Sigh, crust/doom metal band Gallhammer, and blackened thrash metal band Sabbat, but as much as I like those bands, they are not quite as impressive as Coffins. The death/doom band sounds a bit like Hellhammer/Celtic Frost played as slowly as possible. They have massively heavy riffs and deep guttural vocals. They do kick things up a notch on occasion though and the similarities to the Swiss group become even more apparent. Coffins is a great, underrated band.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Gallhammer
King's-Evil
Sabbat
Sigh
Vomit Remnants

Underrated Doom Metal Albums Pt. 1 of 2

Picking just ten underrated doom metal albums is a little tough. By and large, the entire genre is underrated. Doom metal just does not get the same exposure and notoriety of some of the other genres. I stuck mostly to traditional doom and stoner doom in filling out this list, along with a few death/doom hybrids. I did not get into the funeral doom genre, because the whole thing is so inaccessible as to make the entire genre underrated.

LOST BREED: SAVE YOURSELF
I love stoner doom sometimes. I picked this album up in a closeout CD lot on ebay once and fell in love with the somber, yet heavy tones. The dry-throated crooning of the singer certainly adds to the entire mystique of the album. It's fairly easy to straddle the line between stoner doom metal and stoner rock, but this band is very clearly on the metal side of that line. The whole album is catchy and raw, and it sounds great.

UNORTHODOX: BALANCE OF POWER
Another pickup from that same lot, Unorthodox possesses much of the same traits that Lost Breed does. In fact, the two bands were on the same record label and creating music at the same time. Unorthodox uses some more unusual song structures and lives up to their name. Some of the songs are quick and short, while others carry on at great lengths. This stoner doom band is not as catchy as their labelmates, but still possess great songwriting ability.

REVEREND BIZARRE: II-CRUSH THE INSECTS
Reverend Bizarre was one of the bands at the forefront of the true doom metal movement over the last several years. The Finnish power trio was one of many bands attempting to play doom metal the way the genre's originators like Black Sabbath, Candlemass, Pentagram, St. Vitus, and others played. The sound is a traditional doom metal sound. The first three songs are faster tracks including the incredible "Doom Over the World", while the others are much slower. The band's entire catalogue is amazing.

COFFINS: BURIED DEATH
Coffins is Japanese band that plays a very strong style of doom/death. The band has a mostly eerie-sounding and heavy riffing style. The riffs sound as if they are mostly influenced by Celtic Frost and Hellhammer. Even the singer's grunts sound a lot like Tom Warrior. The result is a slower, lumbering, but immensely heavy beast. If you enjoy death metal and want to get into doom metal, Coffins is a good place to start. The band combines many death metal aspects, but plays them with a sludgier sound more common to doom metal.

THE GATES OF SLUMBER: CONQUEROR
I considered not putting this band in here, mostly because I have seen a video on MTV's Headbanger's Ball. Yet, I put them here because I really do not see much about them on metal sites and I think they are absolutely amazing. This was one of my favorite albums of 2008 and is sadly kind of overlooked. TGOS plays a more traditional style of doom metal with some other trad metal influences and occasional stoner doom/psychedelic moments. I love everything I have heard from this band.

Scary Albums in Honor of Halloween

Okay this one is similar to the Scary Album Covers posts but a little different. This time we're talking about actual albums that are a little frightening from a musical standpoint, albums that curdle the blood and send chills up the spine, albums that are so complex that they sound as if they came from another world. Yes, there are a few, and I'm not referring to the latest from Lady Gaga.

CELTIC FROST: MONOTHEIST

Celtic Frost has always had some spinechilling songs, but on this album, they stretch things over the full course of the record. Even though the band utilizes some clean singing, the vocals are so desperate and cold, that they sound otherworldly. The riffs are typical Celtic Frost bass-heavy riffs that sound like the machinations of Lovecraftian beasts. This album is truly unnerving, taking hold of the listener for over an hour. Once it is over, it is like being able to see the sunlight after days trapped in a cave.

COFFINS: MORTUARY IN DARKNESS

The cover image is frightening enough. Coffins sounds like an even more dark and possessed version of Celtic Frost playing a style of death/doom that is so morosely slow as to actually sound as if it were produced by the zombie-like monsters that so often appear on the band's album covers. The faster tracks sound as if they could have come from Celtic Frost themselves, while the slower ones sound as if they came from the pits of Hell.

DARKTHRONE: TRANSILVANIAN HUNGER

That's the band's spelling not mine. This is a classic album from the Norwegian second wave of black metal band. It features the eponymous title track, one of the most well-known and disturbing songs about vampires in heavy metal. Everything else is minimalist, simple, one riff, classic black metal with an extremely dark atmosphere. Only the title track is in English and not knowing what is being said somehow makes the rest of the songs that much more frightening.

DEMILICH: NESPITHE

Demilich's only full length gives off the atmosphere of being trapped in a dark, dank, moist, cold cave. The music is ungodly complicated featuring numerous changes in time signature and speed as to leave the listener completely disoriented. Then there are the vocals, a sound that can best be described as the croaking of a dying bullfrog.

INCANTATION: ONWARD TO GOLGOTHA

Incantation was one of the early bands that blended death metal with doom metal and achieved a Hellish sound in the process. The band's angular riffs, throbbing bass, and pummeling drums form the backdrop behind some of the most terrifying vocals in American death metal. The atmosphere is as dark as the Satanic and Anti-Christian subject matter. Most occult death metal bands have been trying to emulate this sound for years, but this is the original.

MAYHEM: DE MYSTERIIS DOM SATHANAS

Quite possibly the quintessential black metal album. This album was recorded after the death of vocalist Dead and featuring Attila Csihar's chaotic vocal phrasing and shrieking. It was also recorded before the murder of guitarist Euronymous at the hands of bassist Varg Vikernes. The backstory alone makes it a frightening piece, then there is the cold music itself. This album, along with Darkthrone's above-mentioned album completely changed the course of black metal, changing the focus to simple riffs and dark atmosphere. I love to listen to this album with all the lights off during a thunderstorm at night.

PORTAL: OUTRE'

The music cannot even be described, it is so off the wall strange. Portal pushes the boundaries of metal, and indeed music in general as far as possible. The riffs are chaotic, the drumming seemingly out of nowhere, and the vocals are tortured screams. Portal is one of the most original metal bands to come out in years. I cannot even tell if I enjoy their album or not, it is so strange. All I know is that I feel uneasy whenever I listen to it, and that makes it a prime candidate for this list.

SATAN'S HOST: SATANIC GRIMOIRE:
A GREATER BLACK MAGICK

Satan's Host is a unique band. They hail from Colorado and formed in the mid 1980's when they played power metal with occult lyrics. They didn't last long though and broke up. They reformed in the last few years playing a style of blackened thrash and upped the ante on their lyrics. The band is clearly Satanist and feature many invocations to Satan in their albums. This one is no exception. Musically, they are pretty good, though not as good as other blackened thrash groups, it's when they see fit to add in an atmospheric track that they really get strange.

Strange Album Covers Pt. 4: Horror Finally the End

Finally the last entry in this series. So, let's get it done already:

EMPEROR: ANTHEMS TO THE WELKIN AT DUSK

The great Emperor appears here on their last great album. The band broke up a few years and one more full length later. This cover features a war between angels, that is if you can actually see anything here thanks to the incredibly dark shades of green and black. An amazing album that was the final culmination of the work the band had been leading towards since they formed.

BLOODBATH: THE FATHOMLESS MASTERY

Bloodbath is a supergroup from some of Sweden's finest death metal bands and has featured a revolving door of members from groups like Opeth, Katatonia, Edge of Sanity, Hypocrisy, and more. This is their latest album that has a cover featuring either zombies or ghosts, tough to say, although the artwork is incredibly macabre.

MERCILESS DEATH: REALM OF TERROR

Merciless Death is one of the many bands from the new trend towards of classic thrash metal. Merciless Death is closer in sound to Dark Angel's heyday than bands like Metallica or Megadeth though. This album cover features a malevolent spirit attacking a priest in a church.

COFFINS: BURIED DEATH

Yes, zombies! Zombies are fucking awesome and everyone, even doom/death bands from Japan like Coffins, know it. I chose this one, even though the cover to their previous album is even more grotesque and awful.

ATROCIOUS ABNORMALITY: ECHOES OF THE ROTTING

See above, more zombies! Woo hoo! Atrocious Abnormality is a brutal death metal band from North Carolina that I previously reviewed on this blog.