Coffins - Beyond the Circular Demise

Sloppy exhumations and blunt force trauma.

(Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on May 1st 2022) 

The Japanese have always had a knack for extreme music, regardless of genre. Across the musical spectrum, one can find multiple musicians hailing from the Land of the Rising Sun that are either on the cutting edge, or are great at what they do. Death/doom stalwarts Coffins are very much a case of the latter. The group has been churning out their disgusting brand of death metal since the early 2000s, with dozens of splits to their name. But the real meat in this band’s catalogue is in their full-lengths, such as the topic of today’s review, Beyond the Circular Demise, an exquisite 43 minute long bludgeoning that is one step away from leaving you with brain damage.
Throughout their discography, Coffins keep things slow, dirty, and heavy, and things are no different here. Fast riffs are in short supply here, and when they do show up they serve more as a way to punctuate the album’s more crushing moments. The band is insistent at keeping things moving at a steady mid or downtempo gait, with simplistic riffing that makes up for its lack of technique with brutality and pure percussive energy. Riffs such as the ones present on “Terminate by Own Prophecy” and “Impuritious Minds” trudge along with driving double bass, suffocating the listener under their oppressive weight. That being said, the band throws a couple of curveballs even on that department, with a couple more melody-tinged segments appearing on tracks like “Gateways to Dystopia”, the album’s monolithic 9 minute closer, which oozes atmosphere without sacrificing the intensity that was showcased up until this point.
As for the aforementioned faster moments, they’re actually not bad, and are quite memorable in their own right, thanks to Coffins’ songwriting skills. There’s a latent punk feel to them, thanks to the drumming, and it really adds to the grimy and sloppy nature of the music. The way they’ve been sprinkled throughout turns them into a nice refresher, switching things up and giving us a breath of fresh air on songs like “Forgotten Cemetery” and “Birth Postmortem”.
Where things slowly start falling apart with this album is the production, more specifically the drum sound. Whereas the cymbals and snare sound nice, even if the latter is a touch quieter than it should be, the bass drums sound like they have pillows in front of them, leading to a very muffled and weak sound. It’s a shame really, considering how there’s a good handful of sections that are driven by Satoshi’s footwork. As for the guitars and bass, they sound great really. The guitars are murky and blunt, with a lot of weight to them, supplemented by the bass’ fuzzy rumble. They form the bulk of this release’s sound and appeal, and they’ve nailed that aspect of their sound.
Another failing of Beyond the Circular Demise’s is the leadwork. It’s a mixed bag, to say the least. You either get some ghastly wails (Forgotten Cemetery), a creeping structured solo (Gateways to Dystopia), or you get bland whammy bar work like on “Insane”. It feels half-assed, and it sticks out like a sore thumb when most of the album is so focused on smothering you, either through its weight or its atmosphere. What makes this worse is that the rolling grooves of the track itself are actually great, and it’s that particular segment that pushes it away from being among the highlights here.
On the whole, Beyond the Circular Demise succeeds in its attempt to give me brain damage. Sure, it’s lacking in some respects, but it for the most part manages to keep its promise of bashing my head in, and is an absolute riff-fest that I can’t seem to be able to get enough of. It’s a Neanderthalic clobbering of monumental proportions that is guaranteed to make your IQ drop down to room temperature (in Celsius mind you), so if that’s what you’re looking for in your death metal you’re in for quite the treat. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I don’t like being bothered with petty things such as “higher cognitive functions”.
Highlights: Terminate by Own Prophecy, Forgotten Cemetery, Impuritious Minds, Gateways to Dystopia

Rating: 90%  


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