REVIEW: Coffinworm 'Where All Became None' (Profound Lore)

In North America especially, the roots of sludge, death metal, black metal and grindcore are deeply entangled in the same moist soil of hardcore punk, overlapping and tongue-tussling in the most visible way possible, and yet its so easy to forget how porous these Wikipedia-enforced definitions of different shades of shit really are, especially from a European perspective where genre history, and therefore definition, is srs bsns.

By no means the first to dance along the line, Coffinworm have become one of the most celebrated proponents of multi-dimensional nastiness in broad quarters of the underworld (thanks to the klaxon-like blaring of the auto-hype function implicit in anything Profound Lore put their name to), blending blackened rasps and tar-thick atmosphere, piledriving Moonfog riffs, cavernous early death metal rumble and oddly misplaced blasting, into one bitter, sludge whole. Aside from the blasting interludes which punctuate the carefully woven filth like your nan knocking on the door with a cup of hot chocolate, 'Where All Became None' remains a coherantly focused exercise in utter filth, one that lurches from a purposeful, almost black 'n' roll swagger to a desperate, stomach churning crawl every bit as organically and inevitably as a long night out turned painfully sour.