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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