Overlooking the ancient lands of sensational heavy metal, Norway’s COFFIN STORM is the new band consisting of a trio of Kolbotn veterans, with the lineup of Apollyon (AURA NOIR, LAMENTED SOULS) and Bestial Tormentor (INFERNÖ, LAMENTED SOULS) completed by DARKTHRONE‘s Fenriz on vocal duties.
Fenriz explains the origins of the band: “Kolbotn is a hilly forest-y place directly south of Oslo, Norway. When Ole Jørgen and Olav and me grew up there in the ’80s, we had easy access to all the metal in the massive amounts of record stores in Oslo. Olav and Ole Jørgen started playing doom metal together in the ’90s (LAMENTED SOULS) but in 2020 they teamed up again and making riffs in the slow thrash/doom/classic heavy metal style. When the songs started to take form, Ole Jørgen took his place on the drum throne and soon started to record them. Wanting it to be a 100% Kolbotn project, they asked if I wanted to lay down vocals for it and after a couple of sessions in 2021 and 2022 COFFIN STORM was born.”
Apollyon adds: “Me and Bestial Tormentor have been playing together since we met in college in 1990 and formed the doom metal act LAMENTED SOULS. However, with most members being busy with other bands, LAMENTED SOULS kind of faded away. Our last rehearsal was around 2007.
“After I had stopped playing live with AURA NOIR, we decided to meet up weekly and play guitar together. It was not going to be LAMENTED SOULS and we had no serious plans of any kind. But as songs were starting to emerge, I switched to drums and we made recordings that Bestial Tormentor played to Fenriz, who apparently approved! I would never have dared to ask him to do the vocals! I was considering doing them myself but he was secretly our first choice. Fortunately, Bestial Tormentor popped the question and he said yes, so we recorded three songs with an extra pair of drum mics (four in total) in the rehearsal place. Added bass and guitar in my house and went to Fenriz‘s to record the vocals. Then we had two more sessions before the album was finished.
“Initially, I was assuming the music would be doom metal. I think all of us had [CANDLEMASS‘s] ‘Epicus Doomicus Metallicus’ in mind but even if our songs are slow/mid tempo, the riffs ended up being more thrashy than I had expected. Only the title track is pure doom simply because it’s a song me and Bestial Tormentor made some 20 years ago that we were über eager to hear Fenriz‘s ravishing vocal lines on.”
And so the first fruits of their toil manifest in the form of debut album, “Arcana Rising”, with a sterling concoction of classic heavy metal, slow thrash and doom. The result is a torrent of rousing, accomplished titanic riffing from both Apollyon and Bestial Tormentor, commandeered by Fenriz‘s unmistakable vocal prowess as witnessed with his own ISENGARD project as well as multiple DARKTHRONE releases, with vocal inspiration summoned from bands such as AGENT STEEL.
Having exclusively premiered the first track “Over Frozen Moors” on the “Fenriz Metal Pact” podcast, he comments on the single: “Right off the bat it’s a chunky 1984-style EXODUS verse riff followed by a myriad of melodics in a levitating refrain. The middle of the song just proceeds with an even more killer slow-thrash riff and a surprising vocal part baked into it which gives the song an added epic layer. For the heaviness of the rhythm shift in the closing part I just have one thing to say: Wait for it!”
“Arcana Rising” contains six sprawling metallic epics covering the 45-minute running time, and was recorded at a variety of studios in the band’s native Norway, with work originally commencing back to 2021. With production overseen by Apollyon himself, “Arcana Rising” truly channels and encapsulates the spirit of the 80s, with inspiration from such masters of metal as CANDLEMASS, PENTAGRAM, METALLICA and early KREATOR, with musical nods to early PARADISE LOST and CATHEDRAL from the more extreme side of the doom spectrum, as well as including traces of the DNA from Apollyon and Bestial Tormentor‘s own prior work together with their cult doom act LAMENTED SOULS, to create a sensational and majestic opus. Mastering work was completed by Jack Control at Enormous Door (DARKTHRONE),and cover art appears courtesy of Polish artist Maciej Kamuda.
“Arcana Rising” track listing
01. Over Frozen Moors [06:08]
02. Arcana Rising [06:47]
03. Open the Gallows [10:26]
04. Eighty-Five And Seven Miles [07:18]
05. Ceaseless Abandon [06:57]
06. Clockwork Cult [07:21]
Photo credit: Christian KICKAN Holm