A devestating split album of extreme deathsludge that features three new songs from Tokyo's lords of atavistic death metal Coffins and four from the Cali

quartet The Arm And Sword Of A Bastard God. First off, this CD is beautifully packaged. The disc comes in a postcard-sized heavy card jacket that opens up to

reveal a heavy printed CD wallet, and all of the artwork is original work from David D'Andrea. Very unique looking. As far as the music goes, I'll be very

surprised if any underground death metal fans out there haven't heard Coffins yet. When it comes to crushingly slow, sludgy death metal, I don't think

there's a heavier band on the planet. The Japanese death metallers have been sticking to their primitive, Hellhammer/Frost/Winter inspired deathsludge with

virtually zero variation in sound or style, and they pull their brand of grimy, vomitous heaviness off so perfectly that I cringe at the idea of these dudes

trying to mess with ther sound. The three tracks on their

half of this album are so fucking heavy I can barely take it. Opener "Mortification To Ruin" is a subsonic sludge assault strafed by sickening psychedelic

blues leads. "Decapitated Crawl" drops a megaton heavy neanderthal groove that is so mindlessly crushing that when the band suddenly switches into an upbeat,

punky verse, it's like they just kicked you in yer sternum. Some KILLER zonked out soloing is spewed in this one too. At the onset, "Bonesaver" suggests the

most rocking jam that I've heard from these guys, and then it finally dawns on me that I'm listening to a Pungent Stench cover. Ugh. Is Coffins my favorite

death metal band? Quite possibly.

So who are The Arm And Sword Of A Bastard God, and how can they possibly match up to the diseased bulldozer power of Coffins? Gotta trust in 20 Buck Spin

boss Dave, 'cuz whoever these guys are, they are RIDICULOUSLY heavy. Christ, their singer Tim has one of the most over-the-top brutal and pissed off death

roars this side of, I dunno, Barney Greenway maybe? What the fuck. These four jams ("Annex Wasteland", "Giant Invisible Liar", "Storm The Throne", "Shit

Life") come from the same slow-mo, bile and blood encrusted death sludge realm as Coffins, so fans of the one will surely jizz o'er the over, but TAASOABG

bring an unhealthy level of swampy boogie to the show, and by the time "Giant Invisible Liar" starts to bash me over the head with it's grimy riffing, I'm

reminded of what Grave At Sea mighta sounded like if they had been consuming Autopsy and early Entombed cassettes on a daily basis. Extra points go to these

guys for a nice and warty recording that seems to leave eve

ry string-squeak, mouth vomit, and broken drumstick intact. Fucking skullcrushing. Did I mention how badass D'Andrea's artwork is on this? Amazing and

creepy psychedelic illustrations of skeletal death angels and bird totems that amp up the weirdness on this killer split.