I won’t feign familiarity here because I’m actually new to Caskets Open, but Follow Nothing is one hell of an introduction to this band’s music.
Caskets Open is a finnish doom trio that formed in the late 2000s and I have to admit that I was shamefully unaware of this band until earlier this month when they released their third full-length album, Follow Nothing.
Caskets Open display a deft hand on this album when it comes to weaving a plethora of influences together while dodging the usual trappings of stoner and doom metal to create diverse and memorable songs. From the Black Sabbath-y intro to Birthday to the Stoned Jesus influenced Truck in the Mist, the band unites shades of doom metal and stoner rock with dashes of death metal and punk.
I personally really enjoyed the harsher cuts on this album such as the thundering double bass and fiery riffing on Fetish as well as the blazing finale to Dark Left Behind.
Aside from that the band forges mid-paced doom grooves from fuzzy stoner guitars with soaring solos fronted by vocalist and bassist Timo Ketola who supplies the tracks on this album with a diverse vocal performance that ranges from grimy screams and growls to great clean vocals with many nuances in between. Despite its dusty desert atmosphere this album has brought some life into the drought that 2017 has been so far and Follow Nothing is definitely worth a listen for fans of Black Sabbath, Stoned Jesus, Red Fang, Kyuss, Fu Manchu or Spurgum.