UMUR
"The Fleshland" is the 4th full-length studio album by Japanese death metal act Coffins. The album was released through Relapse Records in July 2013. Coffins formed in 1996 and while four full-length studio albums released in a 17 year period might sound like the band aren´t that active, nothing could be further from the truth, as they usually release several splits, singles and EPs between album releases.
Coffins is known for playing old school death metal and that´s exactly what they do here too. Mostly mid-paced with D-beat drumming but sometimes doomy and crushingly heavy (like on "The Colossal Hole"). The tracks are generally simple, brutal, and effective with predominantly unintelligible growling vocals. The sound production is raw, distorted, and powerful, but all instruments and vocals are for the most part clear in the mix. The few times the band speed up the music, the sound production becomes slightly murky though.
Listening to "The Fleshland" there´s no doubt Coffins can play their instruments. It´s not spectacular what they play, and especially the guitar solos sound a little uninspired and simple, but overall their playing abilities match the raw and simple death metal style that they practice. For the style the songwriting is on a good level, but a bit more variation within tracks or the addition of some details, could have made the album an overall more enjoyable listening experience. As it is "The Fleshland" is still a pretty great old school sounding death metal release and a 3 star (60%) rating is deserved.