Coffinworm - When All Became None (2010)

Low down and dirty doom/sludge from the USA.  Coffinworm are pure negativity and hatred for everyone and everything.  They revel in pain, destruction, and hopelessness.  Their slow tempo riffs sound like being dragged through a thick, noxious swamp, bloated, decaying bodies floating on top, tangles of rusty barbed wire lurking below the surface, nowhere to escape in any direction.  All that, agonizingly drawn out, giving the cries of pain time to echo through the mire.  But the band is also capable of operating their brand of ultra-negativity at more conventionally rock-y speeds, such as on the main riff of "Start Saving For Your Funeral" (a song whose title reflects its understated but noticeable current of pitch black humor).  Furthermore, after opening with a sample from the classic 1970 freaked-out-murderhippies-with-rabies film I Drink Your Blood (horror movie references and samples are recurring themes), final track "The Sadistic Rites of Count Tabernacula" breaks into a comparatively brisk section that one could say borders on black n' roll (or whatever) before once again giving way to crawling doom.  While When All Became None is predominately a slow, sludgy affair, these varied tempos give some heft and variety to an album that, without them, would be a competent but unmemorable genre exercise.

The drumming is not at all flashy and never really does much to call attention to itself, but provides a solid backbone for the guitars to work their pummeling magic.  I particularly like the less distorted sections when the tone becomes a down-tuned, swampy twang.  Vocals go back and forth between higher pitched throat shredding and a rumbling death metal growl.  The lyrics stand out for their sheer bleakness, fanatically welcoming and urging on the un-becoming of all existence.  Here's just one of my favorite gems to be found on the album, taken from opener "Blood Born Doom": "I deny both idols and hope / I reject this holy hoax / At the end of my noose / Fuck the Son, long live the Beast".

Two of When All Became None's six tracks are carried over Coffinworm's inaugural demo release, 2009's Great Bringer of Night.  Then two other tracks from the LP were tacked on to the 2012 re-release of said demo.  In all, that's 7 songs stretched across three separate releases.  That level of recycling of material might raise some eyebrows, but when the music's this good I can forgive it.  Who fucking cares?  We're all doomed anyway.

Putrid breath of life, how I hate you.

Fuck you forever (320)