Coffins – The Fleshland
With 4 full-length albums to their credit and a swollen mass of split releases reanimating their back catalog, Japan’s Coffins have had 13 lucky years of wallowing in their own juices and reveling in the filth that is sickened death doom. Even though in the grand scheme of things The Fleshland is nothing new, it finds Coffins embracing what they are and further perfecting an already streamlined, though ghastly style.
The Fleshland finds Coffins emerging from their crawling doom affinity when it suits them by incorporating more of a punk flavored speed as witnessed on the filthy “Hellbringer”, “Dishuman” and “No Savior” (was that a blast beat I just heard?!), with even more higher register screams to accompany the abysmally tortured moans of guitarist Uchino. This addition to the bands songwriting formula wasn’t necessary, for their overall delivery has always been a welcomed means of escape to the killing fields for me, but this touch of stylistic expansion really gives Coffins a rekindled sense of conviction for their ungodly craft. Those plodding, triggerless drums and a guitar tone that sounds slightly out of tune and the distorted equivalent of blood crazed earth worms swarming below the surface… when this album ends, it feels like you snap out of the crust directed hypnosis to find blood on you hands and a body in the room. Coffins subtle variances in their song structures achieves a lot of milage out of these detuned and melting riffs. This, along with their overall tone, is their brilliance. The music simply embodies the soul of malevolence and no matter how you package or promote them, the music is worth getting lost in and the sole reason they have been exhuming the same wretched corpses musically for 13 years with little complaints from their growing fanbase.
In a lot of ways when surveying the competition and status of the death doom genre as a whole, The Fleshland arises from the audio serial killers and perverted blood fiends as a hulking audio monolith of disgust. In spite of it’s strict simplicity, this album is a real game changer, if not “game over” for those struggling to recover in Coffins wake. What a great and filthy album. -Marty
Relapse Records
Worm Gear 
“when this album ends, it feels like you snap out of the crust directed hypnosis to find blood on you hands and a body in the room” Hahaha… Very well written sir!
Looking forward to hearing this.
Yes, good review. The advance demo of this album is just sick and so heavy. I love the new vocalist too. Add as a new dimension. Preordered and can’t wait to hear the whole thing. No surprise I am a huge Coffins fan.
Coffins return with a vengeance! I think I may like this even more than ‘Buried Death’; I agree with Patrick – the new vox additions add just a little more color that I appreciate. Excellent review, brother. “blood crazed earth worms swarming below the surface…”
Ah…can’t wait to hear this.