Thursday 23 August 2012

Coffinworm/Fistula - 'Coffinworm/Fistula' Split 7" - Hell Comes Home Vol. 1


By: Aaron Pickford

Album Type: 7" Inch
Date Released: 16/07/2012
Label: Hell Comes Home



‘Coffinworm/Fistula’ Split 7inch/DD track listing:

Coffinworm Side

A). Instant Death Syndrome

Fistula Side

 B). Drugs & Deception

Coffinworm is:

D. | Vokills and Death Calls
C. | Guitars
G. | Guitars
T. | Basss
J. | Drums

Fistula is:

Corey Bing | Guitars and Backing Vox
Jesse Kling | Vocals
Jeremy Wilson | Drums
Bahb Branca | Bass and Backing Vox

 The Review:

Well, finally the time to review this monster release has arrived.  Let's be honest, the time for suffering is long overdue and Coffinworm do not disappoint, they bring the pain from the outset.  ‘Instant Death Syndrome’ is a track of unparalleled and unbridled disgust, it snarls with vicious angry growls and that is just the vocals.  It is a slow punishing track which exudes menace and malignance, with it sludgy death metal approach.  It is as if the band wish to invoke ill will through their music and spread their concoction of putrid filth in the most morally corrupt and sickening way.  Ask yourself, do you want to play?  If the answer is, Yes!  Then let the games begin and press play if you want to live and let the torture commence.

So, it is no secret that I am a massive fan of Fistula and yet I will try my level best to be as objective as possible during this review.  When I say that this is possibly one of the best tracks the band has committed to wax, it is no exaggeration.  This track needs to be heard to be believed, it is truly brilliant.  Why brilliant, because it is decomposed (see what I did there) with all the best bits that Fistula are known for and yet it is the band being progressive too. ‘Drugs and Deception’ is a track which feels like 3 movements within one song, given the changes in pacing and styles throughout.  Recorded in 2011 and because the line up has changed since then, you could be forgiven for thinking this might sound a little dated, however you'd be wrong.  This track is sick! 

The first 2 minutes is the band at their snarling and slothful best, guitars sounding insolent and abusive, vocals feeling harsh, abusive and tortured.  Everything during the first 2 minutes of the track is sloooooow sludge and violently heavy. Jesse Kling with his anguished and tormented screams, Messrs Bing, Wilson and Branca, the trio of aggressors afflicting grievous mental suffering upon the listener with the malevolent abuse of their instruments.  Then it feels like the band enters into Black Sabbath worship with a tidal wave of blunt and corrosive riffs, with Kling dialling it down in terms of the bleak tones of his vocals, but no less anguished or agonised.  Part 3 and entering the finality of the track, we enter a Crowbar esque atmosphere in terms of the brutality of the riffs, hell Bing is every inch a match to Windstein, but what a way to end a track with the down tuned and gargantuan sludge groove.  Easily and without question the best track of this package so far, but with another 6 discs to go, there maybe time for another winner to step forward.  Bring it on!