Coffins -  Mortuary In Darkness
Released: 2005
Cost: $15

Tracklist:

Reviews

Anyone who describes Japan's COFFINS as yet another HELLHAMMER worship band needs to have their ears checked immediately. Those of us who remember the mighty WINTER will instantly recognize their overwhelming influence upon these sludge-doomsters. The opening track "Black End" sounds remarkably like "Oppression Freedom" off of WINTER's classic Into Darkness. In fact, it sounds so close that I had to check a few times to make sure it wasn't a cover. COFFINS has the WINTER sound down perfectly, right down to the string bends that produce the weird tones that made WINTER what they were. Now don't get the idea that COFFINS is just a ripoff band, because they're not. They have plenty of their own ideas on later tracks. But without a doubt, they are the spiritual successor to one of metal and hardcore's most overlooked yet also fanatically worshipped band. If you're into the slow and heavy, COFFINS is a necessity for your collection. -Razorback

Man, I've really, really, really been looking forward to this. Ever since Razorback posted the first mp3 of their new signing, Japan 's not-so-originally monickered Coffins, I've been checking the website every goddamn day to see if the new record was out yet. Naturally, when someone on the Barbarian Wrath board informed me that it was, indeed, the fortuitous day, I proceeded to run around my room with boxers around my head and froth oozing out of my mouth. The MP3 sample had been EVERYTHING I looked for in death metal, unrepentantly NASTY, rancid, cantankerous filthiness that referenced death metal's true forefathers, Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Death Strike/Master, Autopsy, all projected through the vicious, bilious sludginess of Winter. Alternately rocking and oppressive, with that one mp3 Coffins resurrected the dormant spirit of some of my fucking FAVOURITE bands in musical history…hell, there was even a Gabriel Fischer “OOH!” thrown in there. So here it is. The debut record. And it kicks ass.

Being that this is the side project of Dot[.] and Church Of Misery dudes (both completely KICKASS bands in their own right), there is a pronounced sludgecore sensibility to the proceedings here, particularly the overall lumbering, primordial feel of the record and its projected sound. It's almost as though our merry trio here decided to stay around in the studio after a grueling, slow-as-treacle rehearsal session and bang out a bunch of Celtic Frost worship tunes without bothering to turn their pedals off or switch the tuning up. As such, one might approach Coffins as an homage to ancient morbid gods cohered through a staunchly sludgecore aesthetic- guitars are tuned to as a low as humanly fathomable, merging with the bass to form a billowing, suffocationg noxious haze that envelopes the entire recording, the drums are nearly free of idiotic blastbeats, adopting a punkier, more minimalistic approach to complement the primal bestiality of the band. While this record is in some senses more uptempo and more Morbid Tales-ish than their demo compilation, "Sacrifice To Evil Spirit", there is a LOT of churning, despondently funereal passages here, though they are far more reminiscent of demo-era Winter than the more Vitus-ized power chords of Dot[.]. and Greenmachine. Imagine Corrupted playing early Cianide songs, and you would be somewhere close to what some of these passages would resemble.

As much of a fan of sludge as I am, and as fanatical as I am about Boris, Greenmachine and the like, I can't help but feel as though Coffins' most captivating moments are when they shift from ploddingly abysmal doom n' gloom into unhallowed, ROCKING Hellhammer worship. Hell, that's what I was expecting from the demo, and though Coffins admittedly peddle a fine strand of downtuned, crawling Winter worship, one can't help but favor the grinding, spleen-rupturing, unapologetically minimalistic chords of “Slaughter Of The Gods”. It wouldn't have been so bad if “Slaughter Of The Gods” wasn't included on the record, and if Coffins had embarked on a single-minded artistic endeavor here, but the fact that we have intermittent moments of utter mid-tempo thrashy brilliants peering out of the blanket of sludge leads one to crave MORE…the mid-tempo sections here are absolutely on par with the likes of early Usurper, I kid you not!

I suppose I'm a victim of my own presumptuous expectations here, as I was expecting less gloom, more evil ROCK! Still, this being said, the sludgy leanings here are still cohered in a brilliant fashion, the band referencing a much less obvious source than the usual Iron Monkey and Grief aping primates that populate the modern sludgecore scene. I only wish there were more songs like “Slaughter Of The Gods”, more passages like 02:00 on “Mortuary In Darkness” to appease the ever ravenous Celtic Frost groupie in me (best….metal…band….ever!). Ultimately, this is a highly worthy purchase for anybody who has ever considered themselves an admirer of Necro Schizma, Winter, Dusk, Autopsy and the like, another positive hallmark in Razorback's rapidly mounting legacy. -Diabolical Conquest