Coffin Rot – Dreams Of The Disturbed

After one album and a whole series of demos, splits, compilation and whatnot American Death Metal band Coffin Rot finally arrived at their sophomore album. With the previously released recordings the band had gained quite some enthusiasm amongst Death Metal fans as Coffin Rot was able to strike a healthy balance between Autopsy-styled Death Metal with enough groove and melody to keep things from being all too generic. Yet, since the debut full-length was released all the way back in 2019, the expectations gradually started to wane.

Compared to the band’s earlier efforts, ‘Dreams Of The Disturbed’ feels like more than a logical continuation of the musical paths chosen ever since Coffin Rot’s inception in 2017. Everything is still here, there is groove, there is those choppy riffs and there is the solo’s. Yet, for some reason ‘Dreams Of The Disturbed’ feels quite stale. The album lacks punchy song writing and memorable riffs.

Nothing on this latest album of the Portland, Oregon based band is remotely bad, but the album just plods along without much real highlights. There are some good riffs again as well as some leads and solo’s, but nothing if of the necessary quality to really stand out. Basically, the album feels like some loose ideas based on the musical legacy of Autopsy, Benediction, Cannibal Corpse and Carcass.

This soullessness seems to stem mainly from the bare, clean and equally empty production that was in the hands of Charlie Koryn, the drummer of Ascended Dead, Decrepisy and Funebrarum, among others, and co-responsible for the sound of the somewhat older records or demos of bands like Hulder, Skeletal Remains, VoidCeremony and a slew of smaller acts. The album patently lacks that much-needed rough edge and kick in the teeth that Death Metal needs to maintain its brutality and overall credibility.

It is not the somewhat interchangeable riffs or the rather generic leads that save the album from total anonymity, but it is bassist Brandon Martinez-Woodall who occasionally comes out surprisingly creative and technical. Just listen to ‘Hands Of Death’, for instance, where he shows an excellent grasp of his instrument and the Death Metal genre as a whole. Incidentally, listening to ‘Dreams Of The Disturbed’ is no punishment, but this is fine as a background music and not necessarily something to really entertain you, let alone bring you to ecstasy and push the play-button again.