There's the oft-mocked "Cookie Monster" voice so prevalent in contemporary
metal
, and then there's
Uchino
. The mono-named vocalist for doomy Japanese
metalcore
trio
Coffins
,
sings in such a bass-heavy, bone-rattling, low-and-slow drone that absent compelling evidence to the contrary, one almost suspects after-the-fact production trickery. Even those heartily sick of the death-growl cliche may well find
's extreme take on the style compelling. But the real reason
The Other Side of Blasphemy
works is that this power trio has perfected a style of contemporary
doom metal
that goes back to the music's original sources: the fingerprints on these six lengthy songs (plus the ghostly two-minute coda
"Rise"
) belong not to some all but unknown bunch of Scandinavians, but to
Vanilla Fudge
Blue Cheer
and, yes,
Black Sabbath
. The guitars are heavy and distorted, playing blocky power chords at molasses-slow tempos. The rhythm section plods along with all the subtlety and fawn-like grace of a sumo wrestler. The lyrics -- well, the lyrics might as well be in Japanese for all their intelligibility, but lyrics truly don't matter on an album like this. In a better world,
would be a portent of a new kind of retro-
, but as it is, it's a doomy blast. ~ Stewart Mason