Date: 18 October 2026
A slow band with a long memory
Coffins are a death/doom band from Tokyo, started in 1996 by Bungo Uchino, who still writes almost all of the music. The current lineup has Uchino on guitar, Jun Tokita on vocals, Masafumi Atake on bass, and Satoshi Hikida on drums, and those four have worked together since 2015. Their latest full-length, Sinister Oath, came out on Relapse Records on March 29, 2024, and it is their third album for the label. [1] [5] [4]
For readers just finding Japan's heavy underground, Coffins are a practical first stop because their catalog points outward to so many other bands. The official discography lists six studio albums, a shelf of compilations and EPs, and more than twenty split releases with bands from Japan, the United States, and Europe, including Noothgrush, Stormcrow, Ilsa, Unholy Grave, and Butcher ABC. The splits are a habit, and a deliberate one. Uchino told No Clean Singing in 2018 that split releasing is "one of the important communication tools for us" and that working with friends and bands they respect feeds the motivation behind their albums. [2] [6]
Before the sound settled
Coffins did not begin as a death metal band. In Uchino's account to No Clean Singing, the early group played an alternative and noise rock style in the vein of Swans and Godflesh, then moved to a doom and sludge sound influenced by Cathedral and Eyehategod. He said the sound was not solid enough to justify a demo. When the band restarted in 2002, older members had left, and he chose to play the doom/death style he had wanted to play from the start. Music in Japan dates the pause from 2000 to 2003, and the band's own discography lists a 2000 rehearsal demo followed by Demo 2003. [6] [1] [2]
The model for the restarted band was Winter. Uchino named Winter, Autopsy, and Divine Eve as the main influences and said his affection for sludgecore bands such as Eyehategod and Buzzoven, from a period when he played in a sludgecore band himself, may show up in his songs. Six years later, talking to Salvo, he again named Winter as the band with the biggest influence on the Coffins sound, and traced his own route from Slayer and Metallica to Death and then to the Earache Records catalog. [6] [5]
The albums, in order
The debut full-length, Mortuary in Darkness, appeared on Razorback Recordings in 2005. The Other Side of Blasphemy followed in 2006 through Imperium Productions, and Buried Death arrived in 2008 through 20 Buck Spin. Relapse signed the band in early 2011 and released The Fleshland in 2013, recorded at Tokyo's Noise Room Studio with engineer Shigenori Kobayashi. Beyond the Circular Demise came in 2019 with cover art by Chris Moyen. [3] [2]
Uchino is unusually candid about his own records. He told No Clean Singing that The Fleshland was "one of the arrival points" for the band and the high point of its playing, but that "the original charm of the band may have been the thinnest" on it. He said the next album would be built around a theme of "initial impulse" and early death metal. That album became Beyond the Circular Demise. [6] [5]
Sinister Oath picks up from there. Uchino told Salvo he wanted "more of an old school death metal album" that would complete the elements left unfinished on the previous record, and the opening track, B.T.C.D., is a callback to that album. Most of it was recorded at Tokyo's Void)))Lab Studio with engineer Ryuhi Inari, while Uchino's guitar was tracked at Noise Room with Kobayashi. Kam Lee appears as a guest on "Things Infestation," and the cover art is by Axel Hermann. [5] [3]
Where to start listening
Start with Sinister Oath on the band's Bandcamp page. It is nine tracks and about forty-three minutes, which is a manageable first session for a band this heavy. Relapse points to the opening of "Spontaneous Rot" and the riffing of "Things Infestation" as markers of the record's sound, and the label describes it as rooted in no-frills death metal while staying bleak, doomy, and crusty. If you want to hear the band at its slowest and longest, go to "Everlasting Spiral," which runs just under nine minutes. [4] [3]
For an older record, take the founder's word. Uchino told No Clean Singing that The Other Side of Blasphemy, which he wrote from a stock of songs while his enthusiasm was high, is personally his favorite Coffins album. After that, the splits are the easiest way to follow the band into the wider underground. The 2013 split with Noothgrush and the 2015 split seven-inch with Butcher ABC are both listed on the official site and lead straight into two other corners of heavy music. [6] [2]
A band built around day jobs
None of this is a career in the commercial sense. In the Salvo interview, Uchino said every member works full time: he produces comic scenarios, Hikida is an installation worker, Tokita works at a record store, and Atake works at a printing factory. He said the extreme metal scene in Japan is very small and that the distance to overseas audiences is still a big barrier, because long breaks from work are close to impossible in Japan. He also said people in the local scene know Coffins are more recognized overseas than at home, and that the band mostly plays when someone invites them. [5]
That pace has not meant silence. The official discography adds three 2025 releases after Sinister Oath: a flexi titled December 2024, a CD titled TYOOSDM, and a split with Nekrofilth. Music in Japan's show listings also record regular Tokyo-area appearances through 2026, including dates at Earthdom, Moonstep, Bushbash, and Wild Side Tokyo. [2] [1]
Upcoming shows and where to follow
The band's own site currently lists a show at 20000den-atsu in Tokyo on November 6, a Coffins one-man show at Moonstep in Tokyo on November 14, and a December 6 Moonstep bill with Cavity from the United States, Abiuro, Kandarivas, Sestear, and Sithter. A January 9, 2027 date at El Puente in Kanagawa is also listed, with further 2027 dates still to be announced. Check the official page close to the date before you travel, since small-venue details can change. [2]
For listening and merchandise, the official site links the Coffins Bandcamp, the band's YouTube channel, and the Relapse shop, along with separate X accounts for overseas and Japanese followers. The Relapse release page carries the full band bio and current physical editions of Sinister Oath, and Music in Japan keeps a running list of the band's recent and upcoming shows. [2] [3] [1]
Sources
[1] Music in Japan: Coffins band profile
[2] Coffins official website (shows, discography, contacts)
[3] Relapse Records: Coffins, Sinister Oath release page and band bio
[4] Coffins on Bandcamp: Sinister Oath
[5] Salvo: Coffins on the joys of old school death metal and taking it easy (2024)