Seven years after formation, Coscradh bring a “grimy n’ gutted” sort of black death metal”. The title reflects an ecologically devastating event of 10,000 years ago and the onset of an ice age in the band’s native Ireland.
Cold, cold cold … through a blizzard of sound a freezing wind blows. Crashing apocalyptic metal and helpless roars create an apocalyptic scene. It is doom like in its progress and its weightiness. The harsh metal is bleak and deliberately disharmonious. It’s like being on the side of a steep cliff and trying to hang on, as chaos reigns all around. Ferocious growls add to the extremity of it all. This ode of raw violence and collapsing worlds is the title track. The slaughter continues with “Feast of the Epiphany”, another no-holds-barred piece of shattering chaos and violence. The screams are those of suffering people finding themselves involuntarily in the midst of an uncontrollable whirlwind. “Plagues of Knowth” brings us more metallic massacre. Appropriately enough Coscradh is an old Irish term for massacre. The band treat us with monstrous suffering and extreme metal. Those are the ground rules. Sweeping, roaring devastation is flying incessantly around our ears.
“Cladh Hàlainn” (A Beautiful Cemetery) flies by violently with haunting cries and ferocious winds being represented by the frenetic instrumental department. I felt nothing beautiful. My only impression was of chaos and destruction. The winds whistle mercilessly. Feallaire Dóite (Scorched Treachery) is more measured like the opening track, slowly crushing everything in its wake. The prolonged cry through the blizzard of thunderous metal noise signals a slow and painful death. The guitar sirens as if to celebrate the death. The assault is explosive, relentless and extreme. The world has spent 41 minutes falling apart over the course of this album, and finally the disintegration is complete.
Never has the term maelstrom of turbulence been so fitting. Nahanagan Stadial must have pretty dreadful if this a depiction of it. The album of this name vividly expresses irrepressible conditions and extreme suffering.
(8/10 Andrew Doherty)
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