Swamp Coffin – Noose Almighty | Album Review

As you can quite rightly imagine, Swamp Coffin are not what one would call pleasant listening.

Taking direct inspiration from NOLA sludge metal bands in the vein of Eyehategod, Crowbar and the rest of their ilk that crept from the Louisiana swamps in the 90’s, Rotherham’s Swamp Coffin are a grim affair. However, considering their respective history, such putrid stylistics and tendencies are easily understood. Essentially, Swamp Coffin are a band born from heartbreak and turmoil. On the day they where due to take to the studio to record their 2017 demo, the brother in law of frontman Jon Rhodes passed in a car accident. Following that, Rhodes and his family where left homeless following a devastating house fire nine months later. It’s these devastating events that fuelled the respective demo and it’s consecutive 2019 EP, and whilst the band persevered, it seems the passage of time has only amplified the fallout. Noose Almighty, their debut LP, see’s Swamp Coffin delving deep into that mire of trauma in a way that’s revolting, rancid – but ultimately – cathartic.

Related: “We wanted something that sounded completely vile” – Introducing Swamp Coffin

Noose Almighty – which was named after a light bulb moment at Disneyland Paris out of all places – doesn’t shy away from exploring it’s trauma outright. Instead, it pulls oneself right into the putrid and inescapable sludge such mental and psychological grief manifests as. Opener ‘Your Problem’ is a vice grip to the throat that pulls you under into the mire. A granulating central riff that harkens thoughts of the absurd density of acts such as Mastiff and Slabdragger drags the track forward – or to be more precise, downward – all whilst Rhodes barks with such intent it’s impossible not to visualise spittle and phlegm being incorporated into the mix. Following tracks ‘Jaegerbombsaway’ and ‘Barbarian Windsor’ continue things in a slow and oh-so-low fashion. The riffs to be had here are absolutely monstrous in size, flexing harder than the great Loui swamp monster Rougarou himself, but are also complete with brilliant motifs from doom, groove and death metal. Nods to the likes of Black Sabbath, Conan, Wode and labelmates Video Nasties are plentiful, and only add further engaging variation to the hulking musicality on display here.

Despite such hulking, thick, and filth-caked riffs being the pulling competent on the first side of the record, the emotional exploration of grief and trauma takes prominence as the record enters it’s second half. Documenting the often silent epidemic that is suicide in middle-aged men, the album’s respective title track is a left-field moment amongst the unrelenting thickness that prefaces it. A tenderly abusive and violently reflective ode to loss, it that creeps in quietly with Rhodes delivering an arresting and emotionally charged performance against a minimalist backdrop that erupts into what is simultaneously the record’s most crushing and melodic passage. The intense pain and grief within Rhodes barks and bellows is tangibly intense within this track, with the culmination of reverb sodden riffs and the decanting of very real trauma resulting in a moment that’s quite frankly suffocating. Truly, it’s nigh on impossible not to feel the harrowing and life altering mental upheaval here, to the point where it becomes intense and borderline overwhelming.

However, for the rest of the record, the atmosphere manifested within this titular moment never recedes. Even with ‘Kuckledragger’ and ‘Welcome To Rot’ enjoying thoughts of NOLA sludge at their most revolting – with the latter of the two sounding akin to Eyehategod at their absolute peak – the emotional and cathartic weight does ultimately prove to be the heaviest component of Noose Almighty. Once the emotional prominence of this record is established, it’s difficult to overlook it. Painstakingly raw grief is the core and crux of this album, and once that’s fully realised, it’s impossible not to look back on the first side of this album in a fresh manner, one that’s now psychologically ravaging.

In all, what makes Noose Almighty rise above the rest of it’s sludge soaked peers is how authentic it is. Not only is it a love note written in bile to NOLA sludge, it’s also a record that serves a crucial personal purpose for it’s creators. Every note and piledriving riff within this hulking beast of an album drips with intent, displaying a crucial need for catharsis. Even the few sparing moments in these tracks where Swamp Coffin aren’t submerging you in filth are fraught with emotional heaviness, only adding volumes of density into the already crushing mix. Simply, whilst they may have been somewhat of an obscure name prior to this, Noose Almighty see’s Swamp Coffin becoming one of the most promising names in UK sludge.