Casket Huffer. Take that name in for a moment, meditate on the name. Close your eyes if you gotta. Just take a second and build a list of images that the name reminds you of. Sometimes judging a book by its cover, or a band by its name in this case, you get exactly what you think you will. And in this case it’s filthy, filthy death metal.
The Cheyenne, WY quartet have unleashed their debut LP Gospels of Scum. Oh wait, they actually released this back in October 2016. Well, shit. Apparently this one passed a lot of people by last year, myself included. And that’s a shame too because this is some deliciously devastating death metal.
There’s an immediate darkness that is looming once “Inertia” kicks on. This record sounds like it was recorded in the dead of night in a rusting, crumbling insane asylum. Like the heaviness of every tortured, disjointed soul is being conjured at once to wreak havoc. The intro slow growl combined with the old-school death metal lead is like a ritual. Following it is “Tyrant.” If “Inertia” was just the summoning, “Tyrant” is the unleashing. It’s where Casket Huffer go for the full onslaught. The aggression kicks up and the album becomes a truly vicious beast.
Gospels of Scum is the kind of record that never loses momentum. It slows down, it gets sludgy and doom-y at times, but it never loses its momentum. Dominantly, the record is a (mostly) straightforward death metal experience. Nothing technical, no bullshit. Just harsh tunes played with a destructive attitude. Really, it’s nothing you haven’t heard on a thousand other records. So what’s so special? The mood and the composition on Gospels of Scum are frothing. But it’s also an album that melds old and new with the mold dripping off every note.
Tracks like “Casket Huffer” (feat. Ethan McCarthy) are as dissonant and insane as the band can get. The track gets so blackened by the time McCarthy’s vocals come in, it sounds like the group is flaying skin and muscle from bone. Meanwhile, Casket Huffer has no problem keeping this decisively old school. “Stygian Tongues” has an old school, hardcore-punk/thrash approach that verge on starting up a circle pit. The track switches things up as it moves on and becomes more and more brutal. But what always remains is that looming atmosphere of darkness. For Casket Huffer, it’s always a matter of intensity. Sometimes they’re channeling old-school Gorguts melded with the rage of Revenge, sometimes fragments (literally) of Primitive Man work their way and tear everything down.
Casket Huffer is a death metal band that you need to hear right now. They’re not quite as unhinged and distorted as Pissgrave but they’re constantly a force to be reckoned with. Gospels of Scum is an album that is always improving on itself and maintaining the intensity it sets up. If you missed this the first time around, then there is no better time to jump into this one. It’s a wood chipper for the senses.
Score: 8.5/10
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