Remember how terrifying Indian’s ‘From All Purity’ was? Well it looks as if Coffinworm are about to steal their title of ‘scariest album of the year’ with ‘IV.I.VIII’, the follow-up to 2010’s ‘When All Became None’. Blackened sludge, doom-death, whatever you want to call it, this is a hybrid that’s so enraged the sheer force will damn near blow your face off.
Despite the nightmarish nature of both the lyrics and music, the Indianapolis five-piece’s ruckus is strangely accessible, managing to straddle both the lines of mainstream death metal and deep and dirty underground doom. The vocals of a band member known only as ‘D’ do much to marry these two genres together, switching from incomprehensible death rattles to shrill, haggard and rasping. The sheer brute force of the nastiness this record possesses is almost suffocating and what’s most surprising of all is that there are almost no added production effects. The vast majority of doom-death projects frolic through reverb like there’s no tomorrow, however, Coffinworm have opted for relatively clean production, meaning the guitars are as razor sharp as ever and each drum beat feels like it’s caving in your skull.
Opener ‘Sympathectomy’ and closing track ‘A Death Sentence Called Life’ are definite album highlights, not just for their morbidly imaginative titles but also because they are so clear in their intent; deliciously rage-soaked with dissonant chords aiding the portrayal of the hatred being spewed forth upon the listeners, these tracks provide the ultimate bookends for a release which encompasses a maelstrom of deadly tempo changes and an attitude that is as merciless as it is ferocious. This is the perfect album for those who enjoy their music horrifying, misanthropic and deadly.
(8/10 Angela Davey)
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