Caskets Open - Concrete Realms of Pain album review
About the band
Caskets open is a doom band formed in Finland, they originally released ‘Concrete Realms of Pain’ in early 2020 but rereleased it in 2021.
The album art
The review
We begin this 9 song album with ‘Four Shrines’ it’s a slow, heavy, guitar driven track, the song picks up mid way through and sounds more heavy/thrash inspired, it's definitely a contrast to the slower beginning, we get a really expertly played solo before the song ends and were thrust directly into the next track ‘Riding on a rotting horse’ This one starts out just as fast and heavy as the last one ended. This one sounds a lot more punk inspired than thrash or heavy metal, we slow down back to a more doom sound midway through, it still maintains the energy however. Homecoming starts out with an acoustic guitar, it's a lot more calmer in the opening than what we’ve heard previously, once the other instruments kick in it's still a calm but heavy track, everything from the drums to the guitars creates an atmosphere. The song does pick up slightly but it flows really really well. ‘Tunnel guard’ is next and this one is probably the catchiest on the album so far. Nothing really stands out, it's just catchy, it again has that punky feel to it.
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‘White Animals’ is next up and it almost sounds ritualistic in the way it's sung and played, the vocals are sung in a way it sounds like some kind of hymn and the drums are similarly played, it creates kind of a cool mental image. We get to about midway through the song. There's a pause before we hear some distorted guitar and the song kicks into full gear. Similarly to ‘Tunnel Guard’ this song is really, really catchy. The song ends abruptly. Next up ‘Tadens Tolthe’ Starts out extremely loud, heavy and fast, it kinda scared the fuck out of me, not gonna lie, i was not expecting that, the intensity definitely comes out of nowhere, the vocals almost sound screamed, we get a break from the intensity with a really nice acoustic bit which again sounds kind of hymn like and ritualistic, this goes on before the song begins to pick up again, we end this six minute banger with a fast upbeat ending. ‘Blossom’ and ‘Soul stained glass’ follow the albums formula, nothing really to note, the last song ‘Pale Hunter’ brings us back full circle with a more relaxing doom sounding track, it does pick up towards the end and we fade out with the heavy guitars.
The conclusion
I loved it, you can hear just how many genres influence this band and they’re able to mix them seamlessly, not to mention how amazing the vocals are, going from what sounds like metal screams to clean singing, the band have a really interesting sound and I can’t wait to hear what they put out next.
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Listen and check them out
You can listen to the band on bandcamp and check out their social media while you’re at it