Casket’s Open
To Serve the Collapse
Ranka Kustannus
2014
Right, Casket’s Open are some Finnish Sludge Doom Punks that claim Saint Vitus and Reverend Bizarre to be among their influences. OK. Here on their second album, also available on some 658 colored (or not I am not too sure vinyls and CD) they decided to play some 70 minutes of this bizarre mix of gutter punk, doom and whatever else they can come up with in the haze of all things Necro.
At times it sounds bizarre, but not at slow. At times it pays tribute to NY legends Carnivore, there’s the obvious Sabbath worship, slowed down to Reverendisms. There are traces of Paradise Lost of old, pre-draconian eras, I suppose the Vitus comparison is not entirely wide off the mark on occasion either. Also, when they have bursts of violent thrashing, ie, when they aren’t playing stupendously and despairingly slow they do remind a bit – but not vocally of Type O Negative too and there are also songs like “Mayhem” where they border on black/punk. So their weird amalgam of influences, is not easy to digest, unless you are a “sicko”, who likes that kind of shit and god bless we’re full of bizarros.
I sort of dug “Phantom Wood” even if at seven plus minutes this slow jam begun to become boring and then the shorter and hypnotic “Subwoman” also managed to get my attention briefly even if it were really very “rough”... from then on the album really is pretty much a “two” trick pony, either pulling off, some ultra-slow 7-8 sloooowww jams, that some times are interesting (“Leave Them Alove”, “Voodoo”, “Hetero”) and sometimes not so (“Funeral Home”) and then it has these spunkier shorter tracks, to sort of keep you from falling asleep in between. In all honestly, it’s not “easy” listening... there might be a few worthwhile riffs and ideas and some decent atmospheres, but yeah, I’m not stoned enough to appreciate em, as much as the average reefer head would I guess… so I stand divided.
At times it sounds bizarre, but not at slow. At times it pays tribute to NY legends Carnivore, there’s the obvious Sabbath worship, slowed down to Reverendisms. There are traces of Paradise Lost of old, pre-draconian eras, I suppose the Vitus comparison is not entirely wide off the mark on occasion either. Also, when they have bursts of violent thrashing, ie, when they aren’t playing stupendously and despairingly slow they do remind a bit – but not vocally of Type O Negative too and there are also songs like “Mayhem” where they border on black/punk. So their weird amalgam of influences, is not easy to digest, unless you are a “sicko”, who likes that kind of shit and god bless we’re full of bizarros.
I sort of dug “Phantom Wood” even if at seven plus minutes this slow jam begun to become boring and then the shorter and hypnotic “Subwoman” also managed to get my attention briefly even if it were really very “rough”... from then on the album really is pretty much a “two” trick pony, either pulling off, some ultra-slow 7-8 sloooowww jams, that some times are interesting (“Leave Them Alove”, “Voodoo”, “Hetero”) and sometimes not so (“Funeral Home”) and then it has these spunkier shorter tracks, to sort of keep you from falling asleep in between. In all honestly, it’s not “easy” listening... there might be a few worthwhile riffs and ideas and some decent atmospheres, but yeah, I’m not stoned enough to appreciate em, as much as the average reefer head would I guess… so I stand divided.