Coffins

Eternal Rot – Moribound Review

Eternal Rot – Moribound Review

Eternal Rot are new to me but they’ve been slowly honing a truly repulsive death-doom sounds since way back in 2013. With two albums (that are really more like EPs) to their credit, this English/Polish collective took great pains to create some of the wettest, more caustic sewage spew out there. Third platter Moribound keeps the putrid times going with grisly, grotesque sub-sub-basement level filth suitable for a mass grave or Super Fund site.” Stepping in a rotpile.

Gateway – Galgendood Review

Gateway – Galgendood Review

“I greatly like Gateway’s vibe on the project’s second full-length, Galgendood. That murky, disgusting, viscous feel that one compares to the questionable liquid running out of a pierced trash bag is a tough thing to replicate. Sure, bands like Coffins and Sepulcros make that shit look like cake, but one small fuck-up and the whole thing goes to pot.” Gateways to goop.

Anatomia – Corporeal Torment Review

Anatomia – Corporeal Torment Review

“I’ll spare you the history blurb masquerading as an intro paragraph: Anatomia is a Japanese death-doom band that’s been around for almost twenty years, you’ve probably heard them on a split with a band you like, and Corporeal Torment is their fourth full-length. Now that you’re all caught up, let’s admire the title’s accuracy for a moment. Corporeal Torment implies something physically oppressive, and that’s precisely what Anatomia seems to be going for here. That it can also be described as rancid and crushing would probably make these two Japanese dudes smile ear-to-ear, although smiling is not something their sound is whatsoever evocative of.” Pain is life.

Meathook – Crypts, Coffins, Corpses Review

Meathook – Crypts, Coffins, Corpses Review

“Why brutal death metal and slam appeal to me hit me upon visiting a weird occult shop in Covington. Dead things in jars, all manner of non-human skulls, bloodied animals – these people were serious about this stuff. It’s not fun anymore when it hits that point. Writing gross-out lyrics is essentially writing fart and toilet jokes for people into horror films. It’s lowbrow, but it’s fun because of it.” Hooks in you.

Ruin – Human Annihilation Review

Ruin – Human Annihilation Review

“The mystique surrounding Ruin — the band started in the ’90s, but members were incarcerated and institutionalized, and now their twisted musical vision is coming to life and they’re some sort of cult — seems, at the very least, exaggerated. To dive fully into — and thus to fully enjoy — their sophomore release Human Annihilation, we have to suspend our disbelief and think of Ruin not as a band but as a ‘death metal cult,’ as they would describe it. Only then can we dive into what they’re doing and what they seem to be trying to portray.” Metal from the big house.

Drawn and Quartered – The One Who Lurks Review

Drawn and Quartered – The One Who Lurks Review

“To people unacquainted with beer, they’ll all taste the same. For those acquainted, the differences will be recognized but sometimes tough to adequately express. Such is it too with the genus of murky, cavernous death metal, the type which Drawn and Quartered traffic in on The One who Lurks.” Beer, lurking and death.

Ilsa – Corpse Fortress Review

Ilsa – Corpse Fortress Review

“If pressed, I would have a hard time describing what “heavy” means in terms of music. I can contrast it with what it is not, but that only gets us a partial answer; essence cannot be defined by privations. In this young year, Washington’s Ilsa have me wondering now about what that definition contains and excludes more than any other band. Their fifth full-length Corpse Fortress sports a great title and the laudable accolade of being released by Relapse Records. The cover and the title hint at Ilsa releasing some truly heavy stuff, as did the appealing death-doom tag attached to it. Yet still I wonder: is this heavy?” Heavy is as heavy does.

Coffins – Craving to Eternal Slumber Review

Coffins – Craving to Eternal Slumber Review

“Fresh from their evidently finite dormancy, Japan’s popular death-doom export, Coffins, is back with the mini-album Craving to Eternal Slumber. The legend that is Happy Metal Guy favorably reviewed their previous release, and this largely fits into the canon they’ve already established for themselves.” It’s funny you should mention Happy Metal Guy and canon in the same sentence….

Vastum – Patricidal Lust Review

Vastum – Patricidal Lust Review

“First of all, I think Paolo Girardi should come up to center stage and take a bow. His artwork decorates the covers to a whopping 13 releases this year alone, including Inquisition’s Obscure Verses for the Multiverse, reviewed on AMG not too long ago. Here Giraldi strikes again – take a good, long look at the horrific Freudian nightmare of an album cover adorning Patricidal Lust, the debut release from San Franciscan death metal horde Vastum, and I dare you to tell me with a straight face that such a beautifully disgusting work of art doesn’t make you salivate like one of Pavlov’s dogs. Just like the deliciously putrid artwork decorating the cover of Patricidal Lust, the music contained therein is a fetid, hot-and-ready splattering of meat-and-potatoes doom/death metal.” If fetid meat and potatoes didn’t hook you in, you must be hungover and/or lame. Either way, read on as JF Williams delves into the death metal muck with the low tech charm of Vastum.