One of the best things about being a reviewer is coming across bands and albums that I personally haven’t heard before — like Belgium’s own Coffin Feeder. I tend to listen for similarities on any new album and compare them to the bands that I do know. Idiosyncrasies that make me say to myself, “Hang on a minute! These guys sound like…(enter band name here)”.
When Jai gave me Coffin Feeder to review, it was the first time I’d heard of them. I had no experience with the band at all. So, when I hear Sven from Aborted melting the microphone with his uniquely recognisable raucous and guttural vocals, I was instantly, and pleasantly, surprised. Having been an Aborted fan since I heard the song Cenobites from The Necrotic Manifesto, and then taking a trip to Sydney to visit Utopia Records to buy the entire back catalogue of Aborted up to that point, hearing Sven’s voice told me two things. One, that I was going to enjoy the shit out of Big Trouble, and two, that there would be a theme to the album.
I was transfixed with the album cover for Big Trouble, and it would prove me right in regard to my “number 2” feeling. On a personal note, I’ve always been a massive proponent for cover art being a part of the overall feel of the album, ever since 1986 when I first saw the cover art for Iron Maiden’s Somewhere in Time. Taking the time to peruse Big Trouble’s cover it’s not hard to notice a lot of 80s/90s movie characters in random stances taken from the movies these characters were in.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Commando features prominently, Jack Burton and Lo Pan, Gizmo taking a leak on a Terminator wearing a blue suit and red tie (I think we all know which President he portrays). Sly Stallone’s Cobra and G.I. Joe’s Cobra, a one-armed Dylan from Predator shooting into the air and Skeletor smashing his way through the Oval Office window. Rowdy Roddy Piper in his They Live getup and Sharon Stone from Total Recall kicking the shit out of one of a plethora of Steven Seagal’s. Decapitated noggins showing a more recent likeness to Steven, fat head, stupid looking goatee, you know the look. Chef’s kiss to the artist, you really captured that moment in time.
The first single from Coffin Feeder’s Big Trouble, Porkchop Express, is a huge nod to Big Trouble in Little China. The single features Julien Truchan of Benighted and feverishly blasts all comers back to the time of Jack Burton and Wong saving the world from the 3 Elemental gods, one green-eyed lady at a time. A ferocious and formidable foray into Coffin Feeder’s first full-length album.
Every member of Coffin Feeder are weathered pros. Sven De Caluwe of Aborted on vocals, Jan Halbert of Leng Tch’e on bass, drummer Siebe Hermans from When Plagues Collide as well as Jaroen Camerlynck and Bart Govers of Fleddy Mulculy slamming down the guitar tracks and backing vocals. All 5 men hail from the beautiful country, Belgium. Different regions of Belgium speak different dialects, I didn’t fucking know that, so the word is they all had to speak English when writing and producing Big Trouble.
Dave Otero, who has produced some of the best metal albums ever by such bands as Allegaeon, Cattle Decapitation and Archspire, has worked his production magic once again with Coffin Feeder, a mixture of guys from different genres of metal. A sick fusion of death metal, hardcore and grind metal, Coffin Feeder brings the heavy in a blow out your ear drums and crush your skull kind of way.
12 tracks, each with a title that will have you not only banging your head so hard that it may just fall off and roll across the room, but with titles like If it Bleeds, OBEY, Let off Some Steam and of course Porkchop Express, it’ll also have you clawing your way through your DVD collection, or video collection if you’re a hardcore collector, wanting to watch every movie Coffin Feeder makes a reference to. I’m going through mine as we speak!
The first time I listened to this album I immediately thought it sounded like a cross between Aborted and Cattle Decapitation. They were my initial thoughts. A face melting, back breaking album that is bound for a higher glory than this reviewer could indicate. It is a relentless reminder that metal doesn’t only have to be about music, it can utilise other mediums to entertain the masses, in this case some super cool movies right out of my era.
Now I have listened to Big Trouble a few more times my mind hasn’t changed. This album fucking rips. An anarchial audio experience that will have you bouncing off the walls for just under 40 minutes before settling in to watch a cool movie with all your metalhead buddies.
I can’t think of a single standout song on Big Trouble, simply because they all prominently kill with the effectiveness of Colonel John Matrix mowing, throwing and blowing his way through the bad guys on a mission to rescue his daughter, a young Alyssa Milano.
As Arnold said in Predator, “If it bleeds, we can kill it.” Well, every member of Coffin Feeder obviously bled for Big Trouble, because they fucking killed it!
Score: 9/10 – A face-melting, movie-referencing metal masterclass that absolutely rips from start to finish.
Brett Parmenter
for Metal on Tap and ParMetal Media
Coffin Feeder- “Big Trouble”
Release Date: April 25th, 2025
Order Physical: https://shop-listenable.net/en/1156_coffin-feeder
Order Digital: https://bfan.link/porkchop-express
Genre: Blend of death metal, grind, deathcore and hardcore, branded as a tribute to the great action movies of the 80’s & 90’s.
