Coffins - Mortuary in Darkness (2005)

Hide under the carpet, Coffins are coming! 

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.