What foulest black necromancy is this that I have before me? Well Encoffination have a clever name as well as a logo that at first had me think I had a new Incantation album. After further tomb raiding I discovered that this was actually a duo from darkest Georgia, where they like to get up close and personal with their dead. The terrible Texans have served time with plenty of other bands between them, notably Father Befouled who are currently getting a lot of press attention and the delightfully named Vomitchapel and Decrepitaph to name but a couple more.
So musically what can you expect from this? Well it’s not very pleasant at all! Play is pressed to the clanging of chimes and what sounds like monks chanting, perhaps as they gear up for a cannibal feast, the ‘Procession’ is underway. We go into a B-movie sample which I would stake my chips on featuring Christopher Lee before ‘Nefarious Yet Elegant Are The Bowels Of Hell’ is slowly born. This is slow and crushingly turgid funeral death doom played in the style of (well let’s not beat around the bush and just mention) Disembowelment (as no doubt everyone else will). This is described as soul crushing on the biog and that is an apt description as even at just 39 minutes it is one of those albums you play determined to make it to the end but hating yourself for putting you through the ordeal. The production is low and every bass note is rung out and all that really breaks up the musical torment is the samples between tracks. One in particular is bugging me as I totally recognise the ritualistic offering speech and at first thought ‘Blood On Satan’s Claw’ but now am drawn towards ‘Children Of The Corn,’ whatever it’s a good sample. What remains are atmosphere building song titles such as ‘Miasma Of Rotten Serenity,’ a hugely welcome interlude at the midway point (more chanting, clanging and no doubt incense burning), then a never-ending crawl towards final hymnal ‘Coffinpsalms.’
Simply put this is not easy listening in the slightest but if you love the style this will crawl all over you and rut on your festering corpse and you can also go and pick up the two limited EP’s also released this year if you can track them down. The real masochist can play this as a soundtrack over and over again as they watch all the Faces Of Death series. Grim necrotic art, exclusively.
http://www.myspace.com/encoffination
