Hailing from Japan, Coffins play a vicious style of doom that relentlessly pummels listeners while at the same time is raw and unhinged. Buried Death is the three-piece group's third full-length (all released since 2005 after a long career without an album and an eventual reformation in 2003). In any case, there is a significant amount of hype flying around regarding Coffins to the point where there is a considerable amount of interest built up on my part.
Let us just say that the instrumentation on Buried Deathis extremely thick sounding with barked vocals (with smatterings of screeching now and then) that bring to mind a much more death metal aesthetic. Some of the songs actually remind of some of Cathedral's faster material quite a bit while bringing the sound of their slower material into the mix as well. "Under the Stench" illustrates this sound fairly well, while the drummer adds a bit of double bass kick flourishes to keep things moving now and then. The lethargic pace which dominates the beginning to "Cadaver Blood" emphasizes the low end sounds nicely, enough to shake poorly secured objects in the house when the volume is turned up. When the tempo picks up, I have to admit a tinge of disappointment until roughly the midway point when Coffins slow things down for a brief moment again before bringing the piece out the same way that it begins. I enjoy when the band plays at the slower tempos as their sound seems to be more punishing that way, as is beautifully illustrated when the punishing "Mortification to Ruin" gives me exactly what I was hoping to hear from Coffins - crushing riffs at snails pace with every drum hit sounding like the drummer is trying to beat your skull in with a club.
Coffins are super tight on Buried Death and the album is deserving of any praise that it receives. Thick production bludgeons listeners while the band rumbles through the eight songs which make up Buried Death. Coffins throw multiple sounds and doom styles out which makes listening to the record full of enjoyable variations making it almost impossible to be bored at any one point the album is playing. Seriously, "Mortification to Ruin" makes the album entirely worth it for me.
