(written by Islander)
Those of us who dwell in the moldering and morbid halls of NCS were first attracted to the Scottish death metal band Penny Coffin through their Conscripted Morality EP in 2023 (they had released two others before that). Our sewage-loving DGR penned some paragraphs about it at that time, including these:
“Playing a style of grossly-heavy death metal with an emphasis on brutalizing and equally brain-rotting guitar chug, it’s shocking that the band haven’t fought their way onto this here site before, because Conscripted Morality‘s brand of bleak-and-grey mud is perfectly suited to find some listeners around here….
“Penny Coffin collect a handful of differing styles into their own brand of filth — absorbing the braindead chug that is constantly worming its way into and out of the death metal scene, the ever-present sewage-dwelling with just enough murk that things consistently feel suffocating, and a sort of crawling anger that is ever-boiling in the background.”
Penny Coffin released a pair of singles in 2024, and now they’re back with a 10-song debut album named Transitory Fragmentation that’s due for release on November 6th. To help spread the word, today we’re premiering a song from the album whose title is “Biological Sentient Horror“.
In DGR’s afore-mentioned review he called Penny Coffin’s music “angry and ferocious, taking its time with its boiling nihilism in hopes of dragging you down with it…. It is not friendly nor in any way approachable, but it’s not meant to be.”
“Biological Sentient Horror” isn’t meant to be friendly either. Even the wailing tones of the ecclesiastically inclined a cappella choral vocals that begin the song are unsettling. But even more so is the music that follows that surprising introduction.
With drums hammering and their bass vigorously thundering, Penny Coffin drench the listener in dense riffage that toxically churns and torturously writhes. The sound is both caustic and piercing, frenzied but also wretched, a sonic amalgam of fear and pain (as we hear it) that rises and falls above bone-rumbling undercurrents.
Monstrous cavernous gutturals add to the song’s fearsomeness, and the band also inflict brutishly hammering trauma and inject a poisonously throbbing riff which together create an even more murderous and horrifying feeling. Behind that, the guitars seethe and sear, and in clear tones they pierce the senses in spiraling flares of sheer madness.
Based on the paragraphs quoted far above, you might have been expecting music that’s turgid and sludgy, gruesomely crawling and oozing filth, and if so this song might surprise you. It’s definitely unclean, but not so thick as to be tarry, and it’s as vibrant, unhinged, and needle-sharp as it is brutal and heavy. It creates changing moods as it moves forward, it’s exhilarating, and it leaves us hungry for the album as a whole.
PENNY COFFIN:
Joseph Edward Kelly – Lizard King & Strings
Daniel Paton – Agonized weeping & Distortion
Panagiotis Rodopoulos – Blasts
Gary Ross – Bass Track 1 & 5
Luke ‘El Chapo’ Lockley – Drums Track 1
Transitory Fragmentation was recorded by Penny Coffin “In tormented Confinement”. It was mixed by Joseph Edward Kelly “in the 36th chamber of death”, and it was mastered by Dan Lowndes at Resonance Sound Studio. It features artwork by Anaesthetic design.
For more info about Penny Coffin and the impending album, check the links below:
https://pennycoffindeath.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pennycoffindeath/
https://www.instagram.com/pennycoffindeath/