Ah, the return of Uncoffined. Filled by members and former members of Winds Of Genocide and disbanded Blessed Realm, their debut album Ritual Death And Funeral Rites was a little hidden masterclass in how to make old school death/doom metal, or ‘heavy doom metal of death ‘ as they like it, good old horror film fun again. So, yeah I was very happy when this clawed and shambled its way into my review pile.
Their sound is pretty much the same: Thick, slow, wonderfully dirty doom/death: Ponderous Winter and Hellhammer filling sandwiched between great slabs of early Candlemass and Sabbath and very early Paradise Lost kind of does it for me. Once again mastered by the genuinely fine touch of Bri Doom (Bradford based 1 In 12 Studios) it has a dark and fiendishly malevolent sound that straddles that fine line between clarity and tarpit cloying sludge.
With five tracks between ten and fifteen minutes in length it might sound like an ordeal to get through. Well it is, but in a great ‘will our horror film heroes make it through this terrible night alive?’ kind of way rather than a bad one. Liberally sprinkled with ‘name the film’ samples, it is engrossing and enveloping in the same kind of way that Electric Wizard can be – the riff in each song, courtesy of G Hall and Jonny Rot, grabbing you by the shirt front and just pulling you down under these dark waters. The rhythm section (drums from K Shevil who also delivers the howls ‘n’ growls, bass from Gory Sugden) braces the whole quite nicely and the occasional lead line flashes over the darkness like flickers of lamplight in a cold storm. You see it might be fun but it is serious fun, wicked glint in the eye enjoyment with a love of these cavernous catacomb sounds. It is also deeply atmospheric; something seeps into these riffs that makes them their own self-contained worlds.
Favourite song is probably the final once, ‘Awakened From Their Dormant Slumber’ with some great vocals, neat tempo changes and wailing guitar lines. But tomorrow it may be the title track or great opener ‘The Horrors Of Highgate’ or…It’s that kind of album.
Horror, doom, death: Slow, dark, dirty and relentless. Honestly if that sounds like your idea of a party then spend an hour with Uncoffined. Just old school, excellent doomed death that deserves high praise and to be bought.
(8/10 Gizmo)
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