Casket - Casket (EP) [2011]

Casket are a little known band that are producing, straight from the US, death metal that has lots of thrash influence scattered throughout. What is great about these guys is that among incessant waves of generic and tremendously boring thrash metal bands, they decide on a style that combines different sounds to make for a pretty great end result. They mix thrash with d-beat death metal almost perfectly, and this is a band that definitely deserves more attention; attention that is currently being offered to some of the worst in said genres.

After a one-minute creepy intro, little time is spent on giving perfunctory and superfluous prelude to the listener, opening up with the title track, and giving you a pretty clear idea of what the rest of the record will sound like. The riffs that come through are overtly thrash-influenced, lots of these being very, very catchy. There’s a breakdown at 1:20 in which if you don’t find yourself banging your head along with the slow, captivating tempo, there must be something wrong. There’s mid-tempo to slow tempos seen relatively often throughout, making for, at times, a more sludgy and droney sound. There’s, as well, some fun and careless lead work that’s thrown in between different passages to distract the listener for a bit, coming back with nothing less than the catchy riffs that they so often produce. There are even some eerie passages and tremolo bursts seen throughout, adding to the quality of this EP. (“Hell Is At Hand” at 1:30).

“Grave Distaste” starts off with another short intro of a man talking, soon meeting the listener with a straight-up thrash riff, followed by a more punk-influenced one that’ll cause you to sway your head ferociously. This song introduces a new aspect of their music, one that’ll remind listeners of the mighty Ghoul. Along with the ever-present catchy riffs, they familiarize the listener with another vocalist; resulting in a vehement twin-vocal attack that uplifts the music significantly; however insignificant one might deem the importance of vocals. Another worthy mention is at 2:29 in “Grave Distaste,” where, after a catchy d-beat chorus that makes use of the twin-vocals, yet another breakdown causes the listener to effectively ruin his cognitive thinking skills; rattling up his skull, as it did with me. Breakdowns are a tricky thing. Typically I abhor them, yet Casket put them into play so effectively and so provocatively that I have no qualms with these; and there is no reason that one should, as they always have catchy riffs dominating them.

The worst part on this record is probably the drums, which are quite sloppy at times. Yet I find myself ignoring this, as the guitars are so crunchy and catchy that they easily redeem the messy drums. Do yourself a favor and listen to some Casket. Support these bastards!

79/100

-SmithMetal84