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Caskets Open to Release Concrete Realms of Pain on Wise Blood & Seeing Red Records

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 24th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

caskets open (Photo by Perttu Salo)

Finland’s Caskets Open have signed to Wise Blood Records and Seeing Red Records for new physical pressings of their fourth album, 2020’s Concrete Realms of Pain (review here). Seeing Red will do vinyl for US and Canada and Wise Blood has the tape, after Nine Records did the CD version last year. If you didn’t hear the record at that point, you get a pass — it came out in March 2020, everyone gets a pass for everything except not wearing a mask — but short of referring you to the review, which I already did, I’ll just say that it’s worth the second look it’s getting as it checks off LP and cassette formats.

There are references to acts below like Carnivore and In Solitude and I heard shades of Misfits when I made my way through as well, but these guys are four records deep as they’re starting to hit home, so don’t be surprised when it comes through with an identity of its own either.

The announcement follows here as well as the severe artwork, with moniker and title also somewhat reminiscent of Type O Negative, now that I think about it. Go figure.

PR wire has it like this:

caskets open concrete realms of pain

Caskets Open – Concrete Realms of Pain – Wise Blood & Seeing Red

For 14 years, Finnish doom trio Caskets Open have written songs rife with strife and dark-souled riffs. Their fourth LP “Concrete Realms of Pain” emerged from the wasteland of a pandemic summer as the band’s brooding masterwork. Caskets Open’s evocative compositions conjure the frailty of the crestfallen ballads of Type O Negative and Danzig. Meanwhile, there’s also a simmering snarl of hardcore punk that raises a chalice to Peter Steele’s Carnivore. Throughout the years, Caskets Open has warmed up the stage for bands as awesomely diverse as Church of Misery, Wolves in the Throne Room, and Primitive Man. Bonded by a mutual love for this album, Seeing Red Records and Wise Blood Records have brought the songs stateside to celebrate this stunning doom achievement.

Originally released in March 2020 when COVID struck worldwide, Finnish misfits CASKETS OPEN released the album Concrete Realms of Pain quietly on Nine Records (Poland) via CD/Digital. When listening to this record you may recall the dirge of Type O Negative, the vibe & aesthetic of early Danzig, and the melancholic emptiness of country-mates In Solitude. There is probably a bunch more you will pick out as they seem to flirt with post punk and there are certainly moments that lean heavy into the hardcore punk realm, but with that said, it’s along the same lines as Type O’s harder moments or even Peter’s previous work in Carnivore. CASKETS OPEN not only blend all of these influences brilliantly, but in such authentic fashion I’d swear these songs were written between ’89-’91!

Recorded and mixed 2019 at Tonehaven Recording Studio by Tom Brooke. Mastered 2019 by James Plotkin. Front cover and band photo by Perttu Salo.

PREORDER Vinyl / Cassette:
Seeing Red Records (U.S. & Canada): https://casketsopen-fi.bandcamp.com/album/concrete-realms-of-pain
OR shop.seeingredrecords.com
Wise Blood Records (Cassette): https://wisebloodrecords.bandcamp.com/

Track Listing:
1. Four Shrines
2. Riding on a Rotting Horse
3. Homecoming
4. Tunnel Guard
5. White Animal
6. Tadens Tolthe
7. Blossom
8. Soul Stained Glass
9. Pale Hunter

Line-up
Timo Ketola – bass, vocals
Antti Ronkainen – guitars
Pyry Ojala – drums

Caskets Open, “Tunnel Guard” official video

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Caskets Open Premiere “Tunnel Guard” Video from Concrete Realms of Pain LP

Posted in Bootleg Theater on March 6th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

caskets open (Photo by Perttu Salo)

Finland’s Caskets Open release their new album, Concrete Realms of Pain, on March 20 through Nine Records. It is the depressive Helsinki three-piece’s fourth full-length in a tenure that dates back to 2007, and it brings together nine songs for 46 minutes that alternate between willful slog and outright thrashing punk. With little more notice than a grunt from bassist/vocalist Timo Ketola, the drums of Pyry Ojala and the riffs of Antti Ronkainen might take off at any moment and speedily complement the downer movement of a cut like the opener “Four Shrines” or the later and especially grueling “Tadens Tolthe” — which goes from minimalist crawl to Misfits-style brashness — with a rush of raw adrenaline.

The more-melodic-but-also-screamy “Homecoming” and decidedly midtempo “Tunnel Guard,” which follows, find some measure of balance between the two extremes as laid out in “Four Shrines” and all-go second cut “Riding on a Rotten Horse,” but Concrete Realms of Pain continues to bring in a variety of sonic elements, be it the Type O Negative-style bass fuzz on “White Animal,” the chug and starts and stops of “Blossom,” and the melo-punk-into-noise-wash procession of “Soul Stained Glass” ahead of the building finale “Pale Hunter,” which moves from the ground up in increasingly aggro fashion.

There are shades of the rich history of Finnish doom to be heard here and there among the other aspects of the band’s persona,caskets open concrete realms of pain but Caskets Open have clearly established parameters for their sound and work effectively in pushing forward one side, the other, or in some cases, both at the same time. It works well for them throughout Concrete Realms of Pain in creating an atmosphere that’s never quite lush, but neither afraid to incorporate or cast off melody as the song requires, whichever song it might be. In the three tracks that top six minutes — “Four Shrines,” “Tadens Tolthe” and “Pale Hunter” — they’re able to find room to flesh out the journey from beginning to end more than, say, “Tunnel Guard,” which though it gets more aggressive vocally in its second half and Ketola tosses in one of the record’s several effective “ough” grunts, largely holds to its central pace and style around that.

Nothing against either approach — if anything, the diversity of the material is one of Concrete Realms of Pain‘s greatest strengths; it is a less predictable album because of it — but though the album itself is longer than was its 2017 predecessor, Follow Nothing, its songs seem shorter on average than anything Caskets Open have done before, which speaks to an interesting cohesion taking hold in their execution, perhaps even a shifting of focus to more traditionalist songcraft. No matter. In the center of the centerpiece, at the midpoint of “White Animal,” it’s still that bass fuzz getting the band’s point across.

Doom is engaged, internalized, reformed and deployed, and 13 years on from their formation, Caskets Open righteously hold onto a volatile sensibility that makes Concrete Realms of Pain as exciting as it sometimes seems barebones. It is a doom record, to be sure, but it nonetheless forces one to ask themselves exactly what that means and how that is judged. Righteous.

The video for “Tunnel Guard” is premiering below. Please have at it. PR wire info for Concrete Realms of Pain follows.

Enjoy:

Caskets Open, “Tunnel Guard” official video

“Tunnel Guard” from Caskets Open’s fourth full-length album “Concrete Realms of Pain”. Recorded and mixed at Tonehaven Recording Studio by Tom Brooke. Mastered by James Plotkin. Shot and edited by Sakari Rinta-Valkama.

Finnish Doom Lords Caskets Open will release Concrete Realms of Pain, the trio’s fourth album, March 20 on Nine Records.
Suicide plans in a nocturnal ski-jump tower, existential anxiety in a bleak sports bar, long walks in the shadows of the Central Park, Concrete Realms of Pain is a journey into experiences of loss and human suffering. Icicle sharp guitar leads guide the listener through sorrowful doom metal to gnarly hardcore punk parts. And of course the songs are enveloped by the band’s trademark buzzing bass sound. Caskets Open have outdone themselves on Concrete Realms of Pain.

Concrete Realms of Pain was recorded and mixed at Tonehaven Recording Studio by Tom Brooke. It was mastered by James Plotkin.

Track Listing:
1. Four Shrines
2. Riding on a Rotting Horse
3. Homecoming
4. Tunnel Guard
5. White Animal
6. Tadens Tolthe
7. Blossom
8. Soul Stained Glass
9. Pale Hunter

Line-up
Timo Ketola – bass, vocals
Antti Ronkainen – guitars
Pyry Ojala – drums

Caskets Open on Thee Facebooks

Caskets Open on Instagram

Caskets Open on Bandcamp

Nine Records on Thee Facebooks

Nine Records on Bandcamp

Nine Records website

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