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Coffin > Coffin > Reviews
Coffin - Coffin

A good way to begin - 77%

CHRISTI_NS_ANITY8, May 20th, 2009

Coffin is a band formed in 2007 even if one member, Morgue at the vocals, has a quite long experience on the underground, being on the road since late 80s. The musical style of this band is something bound to the origins of extremism and the music here done is somewhat a way between the classic old school thrash metal with hints of death to give the dark touch to the music. The debut is this homonymous EP recorded in 2008 and now lets’ go throw these compositions to analyze the music in a more complete way.

The opener is called “Altar in Black” and immediately explodes in very good up tempo sections with a good tremolo style riffing. The structure is even quite catchy, especially when we reach the refrain. A few more grooving sections are appreciable because they bring variety and, at the same time, they give more power to the restarts. The vocals are a bit lower for being labelled as thrash one and they manage to be always aggressive in their raspy tonality. The incipit to “Before the Cross” shows again quite grooving parts even if by the fast sections we can notice how a band like Master was important for Coffin to create their sound. Here the music is a bit slower but from the vocals to the up tempo, everything is similar to Speckmann’s band.

If we must talk about the production, let’s say that it’s not perfect if we consider the drums sound because it’s a bit fuzzy but the guitars and the vocals have a lot of power to explode in a good way. “The Burial Ground” points more on the classic mid-paced progression even if the bass drums fast sections are good, if only the production was better! “Forsaken Angel” features a quite good amount and variety of riffs from tremolo to palm muting even if a few times the structures tend to be a bit too similar with the other ones on the other songs. Actually, the stop and go series by the middle is good to give diversity.

The last “Witch” is a return to speed and up tempo. The tremolo picking is more present and the drums are simple, direct. Also for things I wished more variety for them because lots of times they are too elementary but maybe is a choice bound to the will of coming back to the origin of a raw, essential kind of music. All things considered, this is a quite good effort if you like old school stuff. A few structures have to be improved and they should add a bit of variety but the rest is good. I hope they’ll come back with a mature album.

A Dirty Hotel - 61%

orionmetalhead, March 22nd, 2009

Trenton, New Jersey's Coffin are stuck somewhere between modern Overkill and Demonic / Low era Testament's grooviness and barely manage to inject enough subtle thrash moments into their mosh stirring brand of metal. Vocally, Rich McCoy (AKA Morgue) touches down squarely between Rob Dukes and John Tardy. Then add flickers of Ron Royce without the snarl or general nihilistic aggression; decent vokills but nothing superior. Adequate for the music. While there are strong riffs across the five songs offered, they are typical, 'heard it before and heard it better' riffs. You can grasp an accurate picture of everything available here for the taking by listening to any one song on the EP. If you are into Coffin's style of groove oriented thrash, this will surely moisten your loinal region.

A strong production sports a particularly spectacular bass tone which, myself being a bass player, carries these otherwise mediocre songs a bit. The drumming on the album is sporadically tedious. At first, I thought it to be very nice sounding, with distinguishable toms and a low, thumping kick drum, but after listening through the EP two or three times, the snare drum began to irk me to no end. It has one of those "tupperware" tones. I do appreciate the natural sound of the the kit though. I can actually sit and pick out varying differences in each percussive note - a hard thing to find in music today. Featuring the talents of guitarists Roehr and Immolith (Greg Byrne), the playing on the album is nothing to drool over technically speaking however the rhythms are tight, and well performed. While the vast majority of listeners will find the guitar tone thick, crunchy and generally grizzly-like I consider it more like a fuzzy teddy bear. On low volume levels, I think it sounds scratchy and thin while on loud, obnoxious levels better reserved for Manowar, it sounds much better. Neither of the five songs really deserve such levels of volume however, rendering this reasoning somewhat invalid.

"Altar In Black" is a strong opener with enjoyable riffs and an infectious level of headbangability (HBA). Sweet solo near the end following some memorable rhythmic moments. With the following four songs all following in similar fashion and taking a conservative route in areas of songwriting, rhythmic architecture and melody usage, the EP loses steam (and HBA), exponentially decreasing in attractiveness. It's basically a reverse beer goggle syndrome; only with ears. Listen to any of these songs alone, and there really is not a whole lot of criticism but put all five together and the weaknesses are noticeable. Each song tries to hold its own but just doesn't. "Before The Cross" has an interesting drum section and "Forsaken Angel" has a chorus that might be fun to shout along with while drunk on whatever is trendy these days but little makes me interested in returning for an elongated residence.