Thechopstickdrummer
Coprolith is the scientific name for fossilized feces. Lovely. Their newest record’s album cover depicts a horrid amalgamation of humans where one man’s snot is another’s cerebral vein. Lovely. Everything about this Canadian band is just lovely. If my sarcastic tone isn’t potent enough for you, I’ll just scrap it entirely: Death Metal isn’t supposed to be lovely, and I expect nothing but gore-drenched horror from Coprolith and their debut album Putrescence. If the package this gore’s delivered in is nicely handled, I’m leaving a five-star rating for the delivery men. If there’s even one tiny dent, they can hear my critical wrath. That was also sarcasm.
Putrescence, in a grimy, murky summary, is well-executed death doom metal with plenty of bleak atmosphere to drench me and any brave listener willing to endure Coprolith’s wrath. Six tracks make up the record’s runtime, each one generously lengthy, or so it felt. Coprolith is hell-bent on creating a musical environment so bleak that five minutes feels like thirty. The longest track, “Defiling Incantation,” just passes seven minutes. It and the project’s bookend piece thrive on dissonance, but not in a technical or atonal way: K.D’s vocals are fiendish yet hushed, sounding like they’re piped into your ear canals from a mile away. I made out a singular articulated word, in the self-titled track–”SATAN!”
The group prolongs their pieces by using the guitars not only for riffing–there’s plenty of that, in the usual slogging manner–but by using sustained chunks of feedback or a single tone to segue the song into another movement. This happens quite frequently, and it results in a mournful, yet humdrum experience. Even the three-minute-fifty song “Another Skull to Claim” seems to drag on. This isn’t a byproduct of repetition, as the riffing is enjoyable; death doom metal is just doing what it does naturally: down-tuning my soul to hell. One interesting element, and one of the few added instruments to the lineup, was the addition of some bells chiming in “Putrescence.” Funeral doom metal is a thing, I reviewed an album of it just yesterday. This creative choice to add some dirge-y elements was nice because the atmosphere, by the time I reached the end, felt a bit stagnant.
I’m surprised the band doesn’t attribute themselves within the Death/Doom circle (or should I say pentagram? Occult symbol #1,000?). Instead, the promo tosses buzzwords like “slimy” or “diabolical” or “fierce,” but one excerpt pays homage to their sludgey, Doomy sound; the paragraph states that the band is “plunging into an abyss that’s heavier and more doomed.” That’s the spirit!
All in all, Coprolith and Putrescence both bored me and scared me, most at the same time. To be exhausted and constantly threatened is the exact state the group wanted me to be in after finishing their work, so I can’t say they didn’t do a good job. I leave with a message to the group: be like your bells, and be distinctive.
Label: Me Saco Un Ojo/Rotted Life
Release date: 3th July, 2026
Website: coprolith.bandcamp.com
Country: Canada
Score: 3.0/5.0
Metal Eclipse Reviews 