If you care to rewind back to a time before Covid stretched its shit caked claws into society’s chest and ripped out all that is good, clean and holy, to a sunny August afternoon in 2019 when I was fortunate enough to have a stream of grimy, gristly sludge metal from Rotherham cascade through my metaphorical letter box, encasing the warm afternoon breeze in a bile infused, smokers cough, rasping and phlegm snapping its way though a debut EP that was as brilliant as it was painful. Gestated and vomited forth via personal tragedy, misanthropy and genuine anger, ‘Flatcap Bastard Features’ was undoubtedly one of my musical highlights of 2019 and it has enjoyed lengthy periods of time smashing it’s way around my brain pan, kicking all kinds of shit out of my frontal lobe. So, having seen Swamp Coffin return to the fray with this their new album, I immediately put my hand up, having enjoyed their debut album so much, it was with no small degree of trepidation that I pressed play on the tape deck and let forth the musical dogs of war.
As with their previous effort (and this often seems the case) for a three-piece, there is a lot of bang for your buck, unleashing a cavalcade of monstruous tones and riffs onto the unsuspecting listener, all densely packed, sludgy, doomy riffs, wrapped up in a piss-stained blanket of slow, ponderous, and huge drumming, that stomps around like a blinded dog searching for her stillborn pup. Snare hits, like a stolen moped into a pensioner’s back, as the double bass patterns kick you in the pelvis without apology and anchors the whole bloody mess together. ‘Your Problem’ spills from the speakers like an oil slick filled with the contents of an abortionist’s bin, part Raging Speedhorn, part Iron Monkey… it’s brutal, nihilistic and glorious.
‘Noose Almighty’, which is rightly called out in the mostly to be ignored PR fluff, is the song that stands out here, signalling as it does, a slight deviation in their musical approach, embracing slightly different musical ideas and concepts. It is certainly more straightforward, less swingy, less doomy and certainly more metal, if that makes sense? It’s positively delicate and ethereal when judged alongside the rest of the album. Same with ‘Knuckledragger’ which is again a slight change of pace and tone and comes replete with a central riff that recalls early Metallica. That may sound like I am damning Swamp Coffin with faint praise, but both songs certainly do stand out and contrast with the rest of the album. It’s probably a lazy comparison to say it smells slightly of NOLA doomsters Down, but nastier, but key to most of the goodness that unfolds on this album, is down to the nasty, snarling, ferociousness of Jon Rhodes’s vocals, which are a fearsome weapon, wielded with maximum spitefulness. He is the fulcrum of all that is excellent about this album.
Swamp Coffin (and I still attest, that as far as band names go, it’s almost without peer) have taken what they had built with their first EP, and pivoted slightly to the left, leaving intact, all that made their initial music such a compelling and disgustingly enjoyable treat, and improved on it. Everything from the production values that are still marinaded in an uncompromising, beefy, warm and dark tones, however, there seems to be a crisper snap to the sound which only serves to highlight the skilful and imaginative song writing on show here. The songs themselves whilst travelling into familiar territories, seem to have been on a journey that the band have undertaken, that has informed the writing and produced more immediate and rounded songs. Upon reflection, looking back at my review of Swamp Coffin’s debut back in 2019, it seems a little on the hyperbolic side of enthusiastic, but I think what Swamp Coffin did, was kidnap a small part of my soul and torture it for three days with a blow torch and pliers. This time around, the assimilation of the music is slightly less violent and more surreptitious but no less impressive and enjoyable. In summary, this album represents an enormous step forward and progression in Swamp Coffin’s musical output. Heavy, dirty, innovative, and ferocious, the future of UK metal looks like it’s in safe hands.
(9/10 Nick Griffiths)
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