COFFINS
COFFINS "Sinister Oath"
By Dr. Abner Mality
Pretenders beware! COFFINS are here to show how sewer-scraping knuckle-dragging death-doom should be done. These guys are Japan's OG's for this kind of music and there's not a single whiff of bandwagon-hopping or trendiness to be found.
Is "Sinister Oath" any kind of a stylistic breakthrough? Are you kidding me? This is the same rotten, down-tuned graveyard filth these cats have been doing for 20 plus years. The record might just be their doomiest....maybe not, but it's got to be close...and Bungo Uchino's subterranean growls are almost incidental, as the focus seems to be on riffs. The band has never sounded more like prime MORTICIAN, especially in the vocal department. Fast blasting is sure a part of their sound, as "Chain" and "Things Infestation" prove, but you can tell they love the slow, grinding ooze heard on "Spontaneous Rot" and "Everlasting Spiral", which are the musical equivalent of slowly drowning in quicksand.
Full of sonic and lyrical horror both, COFFINS has that total authenticity that you can smell from a mile away. CIANIDE and CARDIAC ARREST have it, too. The newer boys in the cemetery just don't seem to have it yet. UUURRRRGGGHHH!