Coscradh is back.
Following their debut album released in 2022, the band led by Ciarán Ó Críodáin (guitar/vocals, Callous Master), Hick Ó Aodha (bass/vocals, Atheos), Jason Keane (guitar/keyboards, Sacrilegia, ex-Vircolac) and Boban Burger (drums, Belial’s Throne) has teamed up with 20 Buck Spin for its second album, Carving The Causeway To The Otherworld.
Five Fifths Awaken first exposes us to an unsettling tranquility, then to simple but oppressive riffs accompanied by a few moans, then the drums kick in and significantly energize the mix, leading to Carving the Causeway to the Otherworld, where the moans turn into groans and then terrifying screams. The rhythm section also becomes much more aggressive but also more chaotic, not hesitating to slow down to let the leads bring their dose of unease before letting Adhradh Dé Ghoac distill a putrid and thick Black/Death Metal, but also monstrous vocals. There are also heavy noise parts that contribute to the ambient chaos, and then the album continues with Caesar’s Revelation (Hibernia L. VI V. XIV ad XVI et XXIV), revealing an impenetrable sound that speeds up and slows down on its own without warning. The screams are legion, and even though they follow one another, they are not alike, leaving us to catch our breath only with The Calling, which allows for a brief minute-long break before moving on to Scythe of Saturn, which returns to unleash all its sonic ferocity. Rhythm and harmonics conspire against our eardrums to offer deafening tones while remaining within the violent Old School elements at a good pace, finally propelling us into Badhah’s Shadows, which takes over and offers us changing riffs in turn. Everything in this track seems designed to make us bang our heads while suffocating us, even ending with unstructured leads to top it all off before moving on to the very long Opening the Gates to Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra, the final composition and real highlight of the show, which, throughout its nine minutes, will make life hell for fans of sanitized mixes, as each note is vomited, screamed, and torn apart, finally slowing down and then accelerating again towards its nightmarish sounds, which will finally return to calm.
It is important to protect innocent people from the darkness of Coscradh. If madness and oppression are part of what you are looking for, Carving The Causeway To The Otherworld will be your bedside album for a long time to come.
85/100