You’d be hard pressed to come up with a name more gloriously metal than Coffin Storm. And, of course, when you discover that this is the name gifted to a three-piece outfit featuring Apollyon (Aura Noir), Bestial Tormentor (Inferno), and Fenriz (Darkthorne), you know you’re in for one hell of an old-school ride. Throw in the wonderfully anachronistic artwork (Maciej Kamuda), which looks like it should be sellotaped awkwardly to some teenager’s basement-bedroom wall, and you have the complete package – an unashamed throwback that combines thrash, doom, and classic heavy metal into a six-track album that somehow still manages to top 45-minutes.
The Package
Released via the redoubtable Peaceville label, Arcana Rising comes in a number of tempting formats, including CD, black vinyl, and limited orange vinyl – the latter two best placed to showcase both the album’s art and its gloriously unpolished sound.
The Album
Given the artists involved, you can probably guess at a good number of the influences – Candlemass, Pentagram, early Metallica and Kreator, as well as Peacville luminaries Paradise Lost and doom-overlords Cathedral – they all rear their heads over the course of the album; but they are, of course, filtered through the lens of the various players’ own projects. The result is a grimy, brilliantly realised distillation of the band’s myriad influences, and it makes for one hell of a ride.
The band go in hard, with the proto thrash of Over Frozen Moors. Built around a suitably dirty riff, it pitches melodic vocals (very Candlemass in delivery) into the mix, and the result is suitably doom-laden. It’s an engaging opener, seemingly made for vinyl (you can practically hear the crackles, even when listening on CD), and surprisingly catchy. Certainly, with its mid-paced groove, if you don’t find yourself banging your head, you’re probably dead, and it kicks the album neatly into gear. Next up, Arcana Rising brings the doom, the hulking great riff setting the scene, only for the band to offer up another monstrous, fists-in-the-air chorus. Along the way, you’ll find spoken word passages and none-more-black doom, the band neatly combining the eerie horror of 80s metal with the progressive ebb and flow of the 70s. Things take a Candlemass-does-Sabbath turn with Open The Gallows, a masterclass in harmonised guitars, melodic-metal vocals, and crunchy riffs. Thrillingly old school, it’s the sound of a band jamming on their influences and having an absolute blast while doing it.
Opening the second half, Coffin Storm return to dark thrash for Eighty-Five And Seven Miles. With Mercyful-Fate-style vocals, stabbing riffs, and restless lead work, it’s an immensely satisfying workout. The band further up the ante on the fast-paced Ceaseless Abandon, which pits the stair stepping riffs of the verse against chunky, palm-muted slabs of Slayer-esque menace on the chorus. Arguably the album’s most dizzyingly heavy cut, it showcases Coffin Storm at their brutal best. The album closes with Clockwork Cult, one last epic-length workout, delivered with panache by a band who know the genre inside out. A grim, horror-strewn finale, lit by the fires of a thousand riffs and garlanded with howling lead work, it wraps things up as the band unleash a bruising medley of riffs.
If you’re hell bent for leather, Coffin Storm’s Arcana Rising is the antidote. Old school metal played with skill and love by three of extreme metal’s most respected exponents, it’s one of those rare albums that sounds exactly as it looks. Play it loud, play it often, and lay down your soul to the gods rock ‘n’ roll – Coffin Storm fucking rule. 9/10
