Swiss trio COILGUNS was formed in 2011, and according to their own description they explore a stylistic universe defined within the contexts of D-Beat/Grind/Black-Metal. Following a split release and a couple of EPs the threesome released their debut album “Commuters” in 2013 through Pelagic Records.
Whatever you might want to call the music crafted by this band, one thing is fore sure: It is an intense experience to mind and brain alike. To the point of being challenging by mere aggression alone. Not music for the feint of heart or mind this one, as soft and smooth as a granite wall with razorblade edges, as restful as an iron maiden.
The band appear to concentrate their exploits in three rather different areas. An intense variety of hardcore metal is the first of these, sporting shouted or growl vocals on top of intensely hammering rhythms, with massive and frantic walls of guitar riffs with subtle tonal variations as the last ingredient. The second of their key foundations appears to be in a variety of doom or sludge metal, sporting slow, massive guitar riff cascades with sludgy melodic movements on top of fairly elaborate rhythm cascades, the vocals applied for these constructions generally growling more than shouting. A final ingredient are occasional eruptions of sheer noise and odd tonalities that adds a certain avantgarde edge to the proceedings.
Which gives us a number of shorter cuts that explore the first of these styles rather thoroughly and purebred, and a set of longer, elongated features that tends to combine all parts of their repertoire, at times with a frantic alteration in styles and intensity as a central premise for the individual compositions. The longest creations tends to calm down ever so slightly on this approach I might add, Commuters 2 in particular with it’s slow build up of ever increasing intensity that ends in a doom and sludge laden bombastic finale that dies out on the echoes of noise-infested details. Final piece Earthians opts for inserts of the bands more extreme sound amidst a doom and sludge oriented landscape, this one also with room for some nifty psychedelic details, prior to the elongated, concluding noise-oriented reverb decay.
If you have a taste for metal residing in the somewhat more extreme parts of the metal universe, Swiss trio Coilguns is a band that should be an interesting experience. A taste for hardcore oriented excursions combined with more sludge-oriented escapades is needed, as well as a taste for shouted vocals and growls. A certain affection for relatively primitive sounding recordings is something of an requirement too, as this isn’t an album that have been treated to any studio magic as such. Tough and honest sounding intense metal with extreme qualities in other words. If all of this sounds enticing, Coilguns warrants a quick inspection.
My rating: 84/100
