Coffins / Macabra - In Quarantine with Death

While Coffins's roots lay in homage, they have developed to one of the most recognizable and  best death metal bands around. Their dripping, slag like sound couple with nods to Hellhammer d-beats and viscous vocals have made them one of my favorites. Their typical snail pace is what we all relish when listening to Coffins, but the slight variation from slow to mid tempo is an easy and enjoyable trick. Thankfully, "Grotesque Messiah (Extended Version)" does just that.

Evil, suffocating, and absurdly heavy, Coffins's side of the split bludgeons you into submission in a well executed d-beat to slow refrain right back to d-beat kinda song. Complete with little leads and a dive bomb for good measure, Coffins offer up one of their more dynamic songs which, as always, is a pure blast to listen to.

 On the flip side, Belgian/American collaboration Macabra carry out an unusual brand of old school death metal. It's not the well executed but overtly grimy production that's unusual, or the gore infused vocals, or even the guitar playing really but rather the driving section of the song as it's a groovy mid-paced drum beat layered with palm muted riffs and out-of-left-field synth that's more akin to bad black metal than death metal. Beyond that misstep, Macabra do a great job of reusing the same components in different ways and combinations to create a track that's full of headbangability and an overall thrashy vibe.

Props to the labels invovled as well, especially Horror Pain Gore Death, who offer a sick slime green version of the 7". Included with this nasty split are 2 buttons (a logo for each band), a lyric inset, an 18"x24" poster of the album art which is collaboration between Mark Riddick and Vincent Locke, an OBI strip and a flyer like insert with each band's photo and a small blurb about each.

A must for fans of old school death metal that's as heavy as it gets.