Mortuary in Darkness

The term ''heavy metal'' is very unclear and ill-defined in our days. But seriously, what is heavy? The Japanese travelling slaughterhouse "Coffins" take ''heavy'' to a whole new level. The average heavy metal band these days sounds like a Britney Spears cover band in comparison to "Mortuary in Darkness". If you want to have a more well-shaped picture of what I am talking about, imagine Autopsy playing with an amp as high as Everest that blasts like the collision of tectonic plates.

Japan has some serious soldiers on the front of doom: Church of Misery and Boris to name just a few. One thing that I associate Japan with from the dawn on my childhood is the crazy horror movies they make. Apparently the guys have what to show with doom as well. But really, Coffins are a LOT heavier than even Boris. The band got its name from the heaviest Melvins' razor blade-like fucking song. Take that.

It's not just the playing of the instruments or the vocals; it's kind of hard to describe, but ''Mortuary in Darkness'' sounds to me is if I am trapped in a dark tunnel and Godzilla is coming to get me. Or the Basilisk if you wish. Choose your favourite horrific monster and use it. The guitar tone is too damn thick for even stoner metal. Coffins sound like Disembowelment's slowness and madness just had sex with Nihilist's demos. It's just that fucked up of an album.

The best song for me is "Slaughter of Gods". It does everything that old school death is about and is presented in an upbeat and fresh way. This is the only song that fits the death metal idea as the other ones are more doom/death as the tempo is brutally slow, reminding me of Hooded Menace's debut album, but even more smelly and obscure. Yeah I know, I also thought that this was pretty impossible, but, in fact, it is. This album is so twisted, down- tuned, and heavy that it barely leaves oxygen in the torture room. One more good thing is that Coffins have learned their lesson well and don't forget the good solo part at the end of the songs...you know, good doom/death is always more spicy with a slow towering solo.

There's not much missing on this release. It's even nothing missing and maybe if there were at least one or two more upbeat songs, my rating of the album would be even higher. It's not such a fantastic idea that the fastest song on your album to be the first one. When you leave this aside, "Mortuary in Darkness" is actually the most you could want from this genre.

This album is so good that its dominion over the legions of other Celtic Frost/Hellhammer/oldschool doom/death worshiping bands out there is almost unquestionable. It's only twenty years from now that we'll have sufficiently advanced as a species to have words that can adequately describe how brilliant this album is. Not since Sunn O))) has there been a band with such a distinctly physical impact on the listener; the tracks on 'Mortuary In Darkness' are so heavy that it seriously feels at times like your ribcage is getting crushed under massive slabs of black granite while icy, demonic vomit is funneled directly down your throat. Why the fuck Razorback released this makes no sense to me but thank god they decided to between Ghoul and Blood Freak represses.

I don't even fucking understand how these three guys managed to wrestle such a horrifically filthy and sludgy guitar tone out from the musical aether. It's not just the guitar, I guess; the fact that there's an almost too-loud bass with just a hint of overdriven growl to it gives the content that much more weight, and the always perfectly timed and necessarily restrained drum performance manages to propel things along just as much as they need to. And then you put Uchino's post-Warrior grunting over it and it's pretty much all over for me; I just admit to these guys kicking my ass up and down the metal block and don't even attempt to find anything to criticize. Because really, there's nothing TO criticize when faced with the enormity of the aesthetic perfection found on this record. There's never been an album with a production job and instrumental tone that so perfectly matches its purpose before this moment, and I doubt it'll get any better from there.

There's really only three or so things Coffins does: slow, crawling, atonal doom sections ala 'Mental Funeral'-era Autopsy, chugging Celtic Frost grooves, and more uptempo bits reminiscent of Hellhammer plus a helping of oldschool, ugly crust punk. The beauty is really in how they switch between these three styles seamlessly, and how despite how few notes there really are on this album and how seemingly predictable it seems to be, it never gets old. The riffs here are mind-bendingly simple, to the point where they couldn't possibly be original. They have to be pulling this stuff from somewhere, because the riffs are so instantly classic that they can't have just been thought up in 2005. Whether or not the riffs are original is pretty immaterial though, because, as I said before, they've mastered the musical lexicon of this style so perfectly that any conventional judgment ceases to be relevant. I can only imagine the amount of time spent pouring over old Winter and Amebix CDs in preparation for this, it's just so damn ridiculously flawless in every way.

The stuff on this record is a bit more strictly doom oriented than some of the band's later work; there's only one real consistently uptempo track in pseudo-opener 'Slaughter Of Gods' and a bit at the beginning of 'Sacrifice To Evil Spirit' with some other sections sprinkled around. Later records by these guys show more indulgence in the crusty parts, which is fine by me as they do ALL of them so well. The standout track to me is really 'The Unspeakable Pain'; the main riff is up there with that of Mortician's 'Zombie Apocalypse' in the 'it just doesn't get heavier than this' category. It's all sick though; 'Mortuary In Darkness' has an incredibly precise momentum behind it that allows it to change tempo and rhythm at exactly the right moment, 'Torture' is the most inaccessible track with the Autopsy death-sludge done exactly right (much more consistently than country (and later, split)-mates Anatomia), and the closer has a good feeling of finality about it, ending the album right when you felt like your heart was going to explode.

It's really an album that defies any attempt at conventional analysis and just has to be heard to be believed; these guys 'get it' right down to their fucking logo which is threateningly spikey but also psychedelically concaved just to freak you out that much more when you're listening to it and staring at the cover at three in the morning. It's really great and if you're not an ardent 'Meshuggah and nothing else' sort of metalhead you really owe it to yourself to acquire this immediately.

The debut album from Japan’s Coffins is a bit of a two-headed beast. You see they start off with the slow, feedback-drenched, and quite ominous opening track Black End. This seems to start things off nicely for an album that would be right at home on say Southern Lord a few years ago. The change comes with the second track Slaughter of Gods and this is where the frustration comes in. You see it is here the band proves they are a solid sludgy doom band but a fucking unstoppable Hellhammer / Autopsy-esque churning doomy death metal band and therein is the problem ladies and gentlemen. They simply don’t do it enough! Following that truly excellent second track the rest of the album shifts back into the sludgy doom mood with only a little of the headbanging violence of that second track. This isn’t to say they don’t prove themselves capable but if they were to focus more heavily on the Hellhammer worship and a bit less on the strict doom they would be one of the best oldschool doom/death bands going today. Take this for what its worth as you might very well find them to be a truly excellent purveyor of more orthodox doom metal, as those tracks are still pretty damn good, and my lamenting the lack of slightly more up-tempo death metal styled tracks isn’t of much concern to you. I should also give a quick mention of the excellent artwork by Chris Moyen as it fits the evil vibes of this band perfectly. Great stuff.

Doom/Death Metal is not exactly my style of predilection (I don't always have the patience for it), and I'm not an expert but after listening to this, I think it's safe to say Coffins is the cream of the crop in this particular genre... The album opens with a slow introductive track: a wall of downtuned, fuzzed out guitar and distorted bass, bathed in creepy feedback... Then there's this really ominous, dark riff ripping through in the middle of the song, that's when I realized I was in for something special! The comparison with Winter made about this band was on the money, that's pretty much it (perhaps mixed with early Cathedral maybe)... The second track speed things up a little though and the band goes into a more raging Autopsy-mode ("Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay" style)... The largest bulk of the album is still very slow-paced, just dirging and totally heavy with only a few mean and sloppy faster rhythmic outbursts from time to time... Vocal-wise, raw, tortured, moans and grunts are in order... The sound of the whole thing is really nice and thick; honestly I can't totally get into the stillness of some of the songs, but that's doom metal for you, this style is just not really in my nature... And in terms of sludgy, atmospheric and incredibly heavy death metal, this album delivers... This is something a little different coming from Razorback Records (Mausoleum being the closest thing to Coffins on Razorback catalogue), but again this is above-average, quality metal. Plus have you seen this stunning Chris Moyen cover artwork? Damn this looks so awesome!