Morbid Chapel Records - 2020
8/10
Koffin were a very short-lived Estonian death metal act that came and went with only a demo and a few odds-and-ends songs for their couple year excursion. The demo titled Nailed Into The Coffin is the most accessible way to taste their formula, boasting only four songs and an intro. As you would expect, it’s as raw and rough as the artwork and somewhat goofy band name suggests. I’m not sure what it is with these Baltic death metal acts using incorrect spellings on purpose lately.
Regardless, what we get is a pretty healthy serving of murky rhythms under a swamp of festering gutturals trapped between padded walls. By this I mean that the harsh delivery is somewhat eclipsed by what feels like a sound-wall muffle thanks to the degraded atmosphere. The intro track into “Deicide” shows this pretty well, however the isolated guitar bridge feels more fierce because of this. We can also get a clearer feel for the basslines, a common feat in this kind of death metal release.
The typical themes around gore, death, and pain match the general aesthetic of suffering on Nailed Into The Coffin. For such a short work with a hard production, the songs are surprisingly concise. “Legal Genocide” marches forth with galloping rhythm patterns, which fold into a faster drive. “Stupid Thoughts” lets us on with a bass-heavy start that carries the whole track, before concluding with “Terminator,” utilizing more samples to set the tone for the most (fittingly) aggressive track here.
While nothing groundbreaking, Koffin managed to bring forth a really solid demo considering how brief, basic, and primitive sounding it was. It’s a shame that they broke up before breaking ground, because this lays some potential for what would be really strong death metal. Anybody who digs the OSDM sound and likes it as rare as their steak, perhaps give this a try. Don’t let the name turn you away.
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