Coffins — Ancient Torture

Japan is known for many extreme acts, and Tokyo's Coffins is no exception. Coffins' brand of heavy, crunchy doom/death has received quite a cult following, and it's pretty warranted. Over a handful of full lengths and numerous splits and compilation appearances, Coffins has managed to hone their craft of crushing doom, plodding death, and aural despair. Late last year, Hammerheart Records re-released Ancient Torture, a 2 CD collection of splits and compilation appearances. Hunting down rare tracks is not only a pain in the ass, but can get very expensive. This release allows fans to experience the Coffins tracks that may have slipped through their grasp.

Coffins plays throwback style death with heavy, doom breakdowns mixed in. The opener, "Eat Your Shit" from the Coffins/Lobotomized split, sets the tone quite nicely. Feedback swells give way to heavy, plodding drums and thick, crunchy riffs. Pained vocals grunt in time before giving way to a slow doom breakdown. The following track, "Corpse Parade," takes the opposite approach by using the slow for the bread and death for the meat. "Offalgrinder" and "The Day Man Lost" (a cover of the Carnage track) come from their split with Skullhog. These two have more of a hardcore vibe and a semi-playful riffing. Doom reappears with "The Cracks of Doom." Seven minutes forty-five seconds of heavy guitars and slowly increasing speed draw the listener into the slaughter with head nodding riffs cut in. Coffins' cover of Cathedral's dirgy "Ebony Tears" changes things up a bit. Although thick and fuzzy, it's a bit more restrained than the previous tracks. These tracks are a great sample of Coffins' sound. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's heavy and well done. Other than "Eat Your Shit," my favorite tracks are covers. Their cover of Asphyx's "Wasteland of Terror" does a pretty good job of capturing the Swedish sound. If heavy, sparse doom with funny pronunciations is your thing, you'll love their cover of Goatlord's "Acid Orgy"

Covering material from 2007-2009, Ancient Torture is a great way for fans and newbies alike to catch up on Coffins material they may have missed or only caught on Youtube. Two discs worth of material should be enough to keep the average metalhead sated to quite a while. Check it out for the rad tunes, stay for the very cool cover art.