Coffins ‘Craving To Eternal Slumber’ CD/LP/DD 2015

Coffins 'Craving To Eternal Slumber'Coffins are Japan’s premier dealers of death metal in its most primal, sludge ridded form. Their discography reads as almost a hall of fame when it comes to quality, brutal death metal that has this unnervingly heavy quality. Craving To Eternal Slumber is the latest, filth ridden addition to this formidable band’s legacy. A mini album that clocks in at just under half an hour, Craving To Eternal Slumber keeps to their tried and tested formula of none more death.

Hatred Storm is an almighty belch from the underworld; a collection of swampy thick riffs with a guttural vocal vomiting unholy blasphemies. Coffins do death metal riffs filtered through quicksand, each one crushingly heavy and intent on dragging us all down to their level. Tyrant echoes the legendary Celtic Frost with its proto thrash rhythm and obligatory death grunts. It is refreshing to hear a death metal band that is not content with either being uber technical and shiny, or OLD SKOOL DEATH with no sense of song writing. Coffins write solid death metal songs, and then back them up with a sickeningly dense guitar tone.

Everything they do is designed to provoke an atmosphere. Even the solos sound like voices wailing from the void. The doom infected title track sounds like Nile if you stripped out all the extras and left it at its rotten core. It is slow, menacing and unutterably dark, barely inching above a dragging pace. The helpless screaming is a perfect touch.

The quality rarely dips below excellent, through the rumbling Stairway To Torment, with its Autopsy worship showing, via the tectonic An Obscure Pain and the queasiness sway of Decapitated Crawl. Coffins manage to create a record where every song is definitely different, yet all the same. It’s a rare talent.

Music journalists and fans will always talk about the evolution of music, and how each genre can move forward into new territory. Coffins are the exact reason why stagnation should not always conjure up negativity. Craving To Eternal Slumber is primitive, Neanderthal death metal with copious lashings of crushing doom and savage sludge. Coffins are masters of death, and Craving To Eternal Slumber is their gospel.

Label: Hammerheart Records
Band Links: Official | Facebook | Bandcamp | Twitter

Scribed by: Sandy Williamson