Coffins: "Craving to Eternal Slumber"

Any thoughts that I might have had about this band being slow death metal rather than doom is given renewed credence on their new ep. It took a few listens to get over this but the power of their chug and the bass player's embellishments underneath the slugging sludge add more depth. The low vocal roars are complemented by the layers of higher screamy vocals and then into the low-spoken section.  The second song "Tyrant" is more deliberate in its pacing. It doesn't take long however before they head off into a murky speed. It sure the hell is not as interesting as the first song.  The chug doesn't grab you until midway through. The first real doom passage we come across on this album is on the title track. The throat-scarping guttural vocals work their best here and the foreboding prescience that hangs over this song is what doom should sound like, it's not funereal doom, but solidly morbid nonetheless. The more death metal side of the band works when they kick into building heavier dynamics. On the title track, they do this without fully crossing over into death metal, but more of a Godzilla lumber. This is not to stay the more Celtic Frost gone death metal chug they charged in with on the opener was good, it just was not the doom I was looking for. When it sped up past the tempo of the first riff it got a little muddy. While I know Celtic Frost influenced doom, I don't think they were doom, as they came out of the thrash era, but were less thrashy than say Voivod.

When the vocals are hatefully layered it makes the big eminently violent riffs hit harder. They descend back into the unrestrained pound of death metal on "Stairway to Torment", which might as well be an old Cannibal Corpse song. It gets better when it slows down at the midway point and the low spoken narrative comes in like a Slayer song. But as soon as he goes "ugh" they are racing back off. I'll give this ep a 7.5. It's heavy and raw, so if you don't need much more and are already a fan then you are already all over this. If you just want to check them out well you can do so below, it's good, but I am not sure that this is their best work.