The Finnish three-piece Caskets Open were formed in 2007 as some tribute-band (not a cover band) to the likes of Saint Vitus, Reverend Bizarre etc. Soon these doomsters reached a widely-appreciated live-status, and after a first demo (Buried Upside Down) they were offered a deal by several labels. Eventually Caskets Open recorded their debut album But You Rule to have it released via Germany’s Streaks Records. It was, for your mostly important information, released on vinyl in an edition of 658 copies.
Now these Finns return with To Serve The Collapse, an eleven-tracker that lasts for sixty seven (!) minutes. The trio (vocalist / bassist Timo Ketola, guitar player Antti Ronkainen and new drummer Pyry Ojala) recorded this material at the end of Autumn 2013 at the Vuohistudio. And as from the very first riff, Caskets Open impress! Within less than half a minute, they show their teeth. This is über-proto-Doom of a high level, a symbiosis of obscurity, haziness, fortitude, majesty. Basically there is nothing renewing at all, for these guys do pay tribute to the ancestors of Doom. But there are some great characteristic aspects, amongst which the vocals. The main voices are clean and little mourning, but Timo also screams, grunts, shouts and barks from time to time. Another refreshing detail is the injection of elements from other genres. The vocals might refer to the likes of Death and Black Metal (though instrumentally that’s not the case), but pieces like Humanist or Mayhem, for example, are rather Hardcore / Punk-oriented than Doom. Though, the majority of the tracks on To Serve The Collapse stands for very heavy, pounding, ravishing and luggish (Traditional) Doom, still strongly based on the initial grotesquery of Reverend Bizarre (and in extension, quite a big deal of the glorious Finnish Doom-scene), Saint Vitus, Witchsorrow etc.