Vile Sacrament

War crust is a highly popular commodity in the metal-punk underground; taking its cue from stenchcore but amping up the Warhammer-style aesthetics, war crust surged forth a few years back on the wings of Stormcrow, Sanctum, & Last Legion Alive and hasn't slowed down yet. The template is pretty basic, to the point of cliche, but damn if it isn't effective. Imagine a vast black cauldron in which stewed the earliest recordings from Bolt Thrower & Deviated Instinct, stir in a massive dollop of Swede-death & kang punk and the result would sound similar to what Coagula are trying to effect on their debut EP.

I'm a huge sucker for this kind of stuff, having grown up in punk and matured into metal. Bands that can capably crossover those styles will always gain access to me: Coagula may not offer anything new when it comes to this micro-genre but damn if they don't effectively bash out a good beat down. Boiling with rage, Coagula arm their four songs to the teeth with meaty slabs of righteous riffage. I was very impressed with the riffs on this EP, particularly the circle pit breakdowns, which have come to sound so standard: these had a nice angular texture and weren't just pit fodder so much as they actually fit the song. Coagula is also wise in their use of texture throughout, varying riffs and tempos, adding subtle nuances that kept my ears refreshed. Their drummer kept my engaged too, his d-beats strain ahead of the tunes and his fills and breakdowns aren't just the standard. Musically, this gets good marks. I quibble a bit with the vocals, the big defiant roar sounds nice at first but gets monotonous fast. A little more oomph and variety of approach would serve. I do dig that the lyrics break from the traditional war-apocalypse-nihilism themes to include some open face, fists up defiance in the face of life's perpetual shit show of oftentime back-breaking despair.

For a self-produced, self-released digital EP, I am definitely impressed with the production quality. The guitars and bass are thick and meaty and the drums are well balanced. Again, the vocals being so forward in the mix reveals their flaws but overall, I am pleased with this debut and hope to see improvement across future recordings.