Tuesday 7 August 2012

Coffin Texts - Gods of Creation, Death & Afterlife

 
COFFIN TEXTS - Gods of Creation, Death & Afterlife (NUCLEAR WINTER - LP 2009)
I do must admit that until recently I only knew Coffin Texts by their name, and I had no idea what music would this American band play. It has changed on one lousy morning, when I think I have read a review of Coffin Texts’ second album, “The Tomb of Infinite Ritual”. That day I decided to check some of their songs on youtube (yeah, call it the plague of nowadays modern times, but I think it’s really cool that you can google whatever band you want and listen to one or more songs immediately to see if you want to buy it or not). Anyway, I have listened to some parts of “The Tomb of Infinite Ritual” and man, I was blown away totally! Coffin Texts turned out to be an excellent band and one, whose music reminded me my favourite death metal album of all times, “Altars of Madness”. I then decided to buy all Coffin Texts LPs and the vinyl edition of “Gods of Creation, Death & Afterlife” was the first one, which I have found and purchased. This LP may not have the most stunning artwork and layout I have ever seen, it is actually pretty simply released (LP was released by Nuclear Winter Records), but who cares. It’s OK for me. I’m only disappointed that the vinyl hasn’t got the two or three covers, which are on the CD (Slayer, Morbid Angel and Black Sabbath)… It would be cool to listen to them!
But I can be at least happy with what I have on this LP, and these six tracks of pure and profound death metal deliver some of the best quality and intensity, which I have heard in the past years. Of course the strong bond to the ancient Egyptian mythology will bring many comparisons to Nile, but in my opinion they’re coming out of nowhere and have absolutely nothing in common with the actual style of Coffin Texts. In fact, the similar lyrical approach would be the only thing, which both bands have in common. Instead I must say that “Gods of Creation, Death & Afterlife” deeply reminds me the styles of Morbid Angel (and I mean old times of “Abominations of Desolation”, as well as “Gateways to Annihilation… so, something from old and new Morbid style), Diabolic, Sadistic Intent, Vital Remains (old) and Immolation. If you put together the elements of all those bands then you may have an idea of what is the style of Coffin Texts. Production wise they’re close to the old Morbid Angel, it is similarly obscure and raw, but also very powerful and dense. And such are also the songs… The playing is very tight, very relentless and aggressive, but at the same time it has a lot of the atmosphere – dark, ominous and utterly evil (what is also well emphasized by raspy, demonic and vicious vocals of Robert Cardenas). And despite the fact that Coffin Texts has composed the material, which is rather based on the mid tempo parts, it still is brutal, utterly massive and intense. But when saying that “Gods of Creation, Death & Afterlife” is mainly mid paced, it doesn’t mean that there won’t be any blasting parts or even some, when Coffin Texts will slow down to the “Gateways to Annihilation” mammoth type of riffing. Such anthems as “Their Bodies, Our Souls” and “Ethereal Conjuration” will be the finest examples for Coffin Texts style and will show you exactly what the band’s sound is like. “Revengeful Entity” will break your neck with more blasting shit than anything else, while “Earthbound” will crush you with some of the slowest parts on the LP. “Earthbound” is especially impressive, with the way it is build and the atmosphere it creates, especially in the second part of this song, when there are even some keyboards used and the tempo slows down totally, to enhance the aura of this music. I like it a lot!
It’s time to resume “Gods of Creation, Death & Afterlife”… And I can only use two words here: EXCELLENT ALBUM. I can only regret that I haven’t had a chance to enjoy Coffin Texts’ music earlier, but from the other hand I’m really glad that I managed to get the LP version of their debut album. It really is a great album and I must recommend it to everyone. I can see only one fault in it and it’s the fact that there are basically just five songs here (plus an intro) and so as overall the album is less than 30 minutes long, which is just not enough. I know that the CD has even three cover songs, but that means there’s not enough original Coffin Texts material for me. Besides, the LP hasn’t even got the covers, for some annoying reasons. But I admit that I decided to download them all and I must say they all sound awesome. I especially liked Slayer’s “Crypts of Eternity” – what an excellent song and so well played, it is very dark and evil as hell, with great vocals, which sound like David Vincent’s! Speaking of which, Morbid Angel’s “Maze of Torment” is also killer and Black Sabbath’s “Disturbing the Priest” more than satisfying. So, believe me, “Gods of Creation, Death & Afterlife” is very good LP.
Now it’s time to get “The Tomb of Infinite Ritual”!
Standout tracks: “Earthbound”, Their Bodies, Our Souls”, “Ethereal Conjuration”
Final rate: 85/100

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