Coffins: Perpetual Penance (Compilation 2015)

Regurgitated Guts, Japanese Style

Review by joanismylover, the third metal attorney.

My father is retired U.S. Air Force. From 1982 to 1985 our family served along side him in Tampa, Florida, at MacDill AFB. I spent the beginning of my "formative years" in the bloody sewage where death metal was just being [re]born. My buddy at Booker T. Washington 7th Grade school was - he claimed - good friends with Nasty Ronnie of Nasty Savage. I probably bumped into Chuck Schuldiner at the Brandon Mall, sneaking in to see Heavy Metal. I'm pretty sure my other buddy was the artist for Cannibal Corpse.* The colossal hole that is Tampa - Morrisound studios and all - is death metal, for all intents and purposes. But then the wretched path** of the USAF took us to Misawa AFB in Aomori Ken, Japan, where we served from 1985 to 1988.

Japan was not then or now known as a death metal hotbed. And yet - get drowned in [this] revelation - the Japanese have an uncanny ability to make inventions of the gaijin*** better. Cows are not native to Japan and yet, the steaks I had in Japan were some of the best I ever tasted. Automobiles were invented here in 'merica. What is the country of origin of your car? Here comes perdition - what is the best neck snapping death metal band for the last ten years? Japan's COFFINS, of course. Next week will see the release of Perpetual Penance, a compilation double CD that drops just about every split, single, flexi this prolific band has done from its inception til the dawn of doomsday. 16 songs, one hour and 37 minutes, 246.4 MB of Coffins. There are three - yes three - versions of "Grotesque Messiah" on this thing. A live version of "Under the Stench." All the axes of vengeance are present on this hellbringer. Do you really need all of this Coffins?


Yes. Yes you do. Right fucking now. There are certain bands that perform their craft with such bombastic consistency and fervor that really, in their presence other bands should just crawl back into whatever hole from whence they came. Coffins doesn't seem to do anything particularly special - it's just death metal. They aren't ground-breaking - others drop-tuned before they did. They aren't the most talented on the block - technical this is not. They are just heavy as fuck. Coffins are just heavy as fuck, man. I mean that's why we're into this music, right? To bang your head like you never did before. To slam into cathartic rage - no joy - with fellow metal brethren. I say "joy" because Coffins are fun - the most fun band in death metal. I'd tell you a track that best personifies them but really any track will do. You will bang your head to every song on this release. Since this is ostensibly a "critique" I'd say that outside of "Hellbringer" there is little variety here - everything is slow- to mid-paced, slow build, big fucking riff dance jam that compels the whiplash and then makes you think - how do they do this!?! and why isn't everyone doing this? But of course that's not a critique. That's a compliment. By the Slaughter of Gods and in the fog of burning flesh, go get this. Now.

4.5 out of 5



*This is completely false, but he did draw a lot of naked ladies during class. I digress.
**Try not to bang your head to that song - I dare you.
***Foreigner (not the band, but 'one who is foreign' to Japan)