Coffins

Blasting the cobwebs off the early ’90s metal subgenre of death doom, Tokyo’s Coffins reach the apex of their Celtic Frost/Autopsy worship on Buried Death. Make no mistake: this is old-school, crusty doom with blackened, guttural death grunts from a band that have shared members with infamous Japanese doom-mongers Dot(.) and Church of Misery. Like 2006’s The Other Side of Blasphemy, the production is swamp-like and abysmal, akin to Lair of the Minotaur at 33 rpm. "Under the Stench” has an early Cathedral heft, as guitarist/vocalist Uchino lays down chord after smothering chord. The Mortician-like triad of the title track, "Altars in Gore” and "Cadaver Blood” sport shifting, relentlessly gruelling tempos. Yet "Mortification to Ruin” (also on last year’s split CD with the Arm and Sword of a Bastard God) and "Deadly Sinners” tap into the primeval doom that the short-lived Winter once touted, never to be unearthed again until now. The Grief-inspired "The Frozen Styx” closes the album, as Coffins reanimate one of the darkest, most oppressive chapters of metal with consummate style and punishing panache.