Coffins - 'Buried Death'

While the land of The Rising Sun may not be known as a hotbed of metal, Japan has made several notable contributions to the cause. For the glam crowd, Loudness was always a sure bet, and more recently, the eclectic Boris has become a favorite amongst ‘heads and hipsters alike. While neither could be considered mainstream acts in any language, Japan’s true underground finally has some overseas representation in the form of death/doom metallers Coffins.

If Weedeater’s Dixie Dave brought his thickly distorted bass and a big bag of “herbal enhancement” to a loosely organized Six Feet Under jam session, Buried Death would probably be the result. This crushingly caustic eight-songer delivers plenty of mammoth-sized riffs with enough destructive force to make Tokyo feel like Godzilla came to town for another film shoot. Molten slabs of doom lumber along side of mid-paced death n’ roll and punked-up thrash in a sometimes frightening, and other times forgettable way.

While the whole of Buried Death comes across as a fairly consistent effort, Coffins tend to bring their A-game when kicking the bulldozer down into first gear and allowing the doomier side of their psyche to take over. The monolithic and psychedelic “The Frozen Styx” serves as the album’s golden child with its mind-numbing groove. “Mortification To Run” and “Cadaver Blood” are two more droning, feedback-soaked odes to a slow and painful death. It’s when the tempo picks up that the predictability comes into play. It seems that the faster and thrashier Coffins get, the less interesting they become. Sure, the ultra-fuzzed sound and lower-than-low tuning could take part of the blame for the waning intensity; the riffs themselves can come across as a bit ‘ ho-hum.’

Buried Death doesn’t have much that fans of Six Feet Under, Obituary or any of their bastard spawn haven’t heard before, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an enjoyable release. If you’re looking for an ear-grating good time free of complexity or feigned emotion, Coffins has your order.