Interview with death metal band from Hungary - COFFINBORN.
Answered Disguster, thank you!
Translated Duzl, thank you!
Questions prepared Jakub Asphyx.
Recenze/review - COFFINBORN - Cadaveric Retribution (2023):
Ave COFFINBORN! Greetings to the Hungarian underground. I hope everything is fine with you. It should be because this year you have released a first long-play full-length album in your band's career. I have to admit it has literally blown my mind. It is dark, energic and as if it cuts by the sharp edge of the knife. I can hear from the record you did a really good job and you added a big portion of the talent, too. How do you perceive the new album in comparison to the previous first EP „Beneath the Cemetery“? Where did you want to move and in what are these two records different?
Hi there and thanks for your kind words about our new record! We definitely wanted to keep the same sound of the EP. Of course I changed the guitar sound a little bit but added some BOLT THROWER inspired riffs here and there but the song structure and the overall sound remained the same.
„Cadaveric Retribution“ includes all attributes of good death and doom metal. For me personally, it represents the record, which I really like to listen to. How did you produce it? How look the writing process of new material in the case of COFFINBORN?
I think it’s fair to say that it sounds weird but the song writing process didn’t take much time even though it took us 8 years to record it. The riffs just came naturally right after we recorded the EP, but then both me and Blasphemy moved abroad and we just couldn’t figure it out how to record it. I wrote a couple new songs in 2021 which I wanted to feature on the debut album so we had to leave off a couple old ones.
Who's signed the sound? I have to confirm that the sound literally kills. It keeps making me turn up the volume on the hi-fi tower. You have a sound that is harsh, raw and dark and animalistic at the same time, it feels analogue. What studio did you record in and how did it all work?
One of the main positive difference for me between the EP and the full length is the guitar sound. I wanted to create something similar like ASPHYX and even tough it’s not as harsh as ASPHYX’s gutiar sound it still sounds killer. Blasphemy recorded the drums and his vocal parts at Obsidian Studio by Arpad Szenti, then I recorded the guitars and my vocal parts, then Churchburner recorded the bass at Obsidian Studio and then Arpad mixed and mastered the whole thing.
An integral part and a kind of extra bonus for fans today is a music CD (cassette, vinyl). You have released it on Xtreem Music and it comes with a deadpan cover. Who is the author? How did you choose the theme and how does it relate to the music on the release?
Khaos Diktator painted the cover which was basically inspired by our EP’s cover by Mark Riddick. Basically theme is the dead awakened from their graves in a crypt. We wanted to have a painting for the full length as gloomy and dark as the monochrome works from Mark and Khaos Diktator seemed to be the perfect guy for the job. He did a cover for one of our other projects before so we knew he is the perfect choice and of course he delivered what we expected from him.
I have been wandering the underground for over thirty years and I still go to Hungary for music with certainty. I think we have a similar nature and taste when it comes to metal. I like your bands a lot and I monitor your scene carefully. Maybe I envy you a little, because we only have a few death metal bands that are worth it. How do you perceive your scene, fans, labels?
The thing is I moved to the UK back in 2014 and Blasphemy a couple months earlier to Germany. Of course I follow the Hungarian scene as much as possible but I probably have the same knowledge about it like you. I don’t go to gigs in Hungary and I haven’t played there since 2014 but hopefully this year I’ll be able to change this and play in Budapest with my band from England.
You play death metal influenced by, among other things, the old school. Today, the band can't avoid comparisons, but I would like to know how the idea to start COFFINBORN was born, who was and is your metal idol? Where do you want to move your band? Are you attracted to large foreign festivals, for example, are you willing to go on tour with a more famous band?
I think it all started at a MORBID CARNAGE rehearsal where I started to play the riffs from „Enter the Nightmares of Horror“ and Blasphemy and Churchburner immediately hooked up on it. I was extremely heavily influenced by ASPHYX and MASSACRE at that time and one weekend I came up with a bunch of riffs inspired by them and at the rehearsal I just started to play them randomly with no intention to form a band but as I said Blasphemy and Churchburner really liked the riffs and we managed to put together 2 songs straight away on a MORBID CARNAGE rehearsal. It all came just naturally. I don’t really have a metal idol personally but Eric Daniels from SOULBURN and former ASPHYX and Roger from MORTICIAN are definitely important guitar players for me. Of course I’m also heavly influenced by Chuck from DEATH and Trey from MORBID ANGEL but who’s not. I’m rather attracted to underground death metal fests like Kill-Town or Total Death over Mexico. When it comes to tours, I’d just want to be surrounded by cool, chill out guys. Touring with someone big is not a main goal for me.
When I started my blog six years ago, I had a vision that I would try to support bands that are not so much popular, or they are lost in underground. To let the world knows about them. I think I'm doing quite well, at least according to the responses. How do you approach the promotion of your music? Do you rely upon the label or do you send the CDs for various reviews by yourself? For example, I buy albums that I really enjoy. What about you? Are you also fans who often support your colleagues? Do you go to concerts?
We let the label to sort out the promotion for us and luckily XTREEM MUSIC is quite good with that. We don’t send out free CDs to ‘zines only to a couple of our friends. All three of us are collectors as well and we buy what we like and of course all of us go to differents shows and a festivals. Again I prefer underground gigs. I saw SKELETAL REMAINS in the smallest venue of Bristol (capacity of 40 people max) a couple years ago and it was fucking brilliant despite that we all had a heatstroke. On the other had I just saw DYING FETUS in a huge venue and it was great of course but there is just something beautiful with these underground DIY death metal gigs which you can’t replicate with a big professional venues. The same goes for the festivals. Brutal Assault was killer every time I attended but Kill-Town is just something else.
On the one hand, today the new band has a lot of opportunities to make themselves more known, but on the other hand, there are a huge number of groups and the fans are getting lost in this big metal sea. A lot of people just download mp3s from the internet and instead of to visit the concert they prefer to spit poisonous saliva on Facebook. How do modern technologies affect you as COFFINBORN? What do you think about downloading music, google metalists, streaming music, etc.?
As mentioned before, all of us are collectors, especially Blasphemy, he has some crazy shit in his collection but I have to be honest recently I find myself listening to music on Spotify and Bandcamp more and more simply because I don’t have time to put on a record and just to listen to it start to finish. I listen to music during cooking, driving or in the gym. Instead of putting on a record I’m playing guitar during my freetime. People still order the physical copies from us so downloads don‘t really affect us.
I like to ask the musicians what death metal means to them. How would they define it, whether it is more the philosophy and lifestyle thing for them or "just" relaxation? What does it mean for you? How do you perceive and experience it?
That’s a hard question to be fair. I’m obsessed with death metal but it’s definitely not a lifestyle or philosophy for me. Of course being in a band is a lifestyle but that’s not just death metal and I’m interested in darker topics related to death but that’s not a philosophy. I’d probably have to go with the relaxation because when I’m listening to a good death metal album or playing a cool death metal riff over and over again than that’s when I’m at my happy place.
Finally, a classic but important question. What is COFFINBORN planning in the upcoming months? Where can we see you at the stage and when will you visit the Europe?
Unfortunately since we are all living in different countries playing live is a huge headache at the moment. Hopefully one day we’ll be able to play live but I don’t think that it’s going to happen within this year. We should receive all the merch from the label this week and also planning to print some t-shirts and longsleeves but apart from that no other plans for this year.
Thank you so much for the interview. I wish a lot of success to the new album and let the number of your fans expand as much as possible. I will look forward to seeing you somewhere live again. I wish you a lot of success both musically and personally. I'm going to push „Cadaveric Retribution“ into my head again!
Thanks for the opportunity and for your kind words about our music once again!
Recenze/review - COFFINBORN - Cadaveric Retribution (2023):
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