Caskets Open – Concrete Realms of Pain LP

“Caskets Open are one of those bands that not only plays a throwback style, or in this case an odd amalgam of styles, they’re a band that feels throwback. The move towards busy composition and complex, layered production hasn’t effected these Finns. Each part of their sound is stripped to it’s essentials, each instrument given space to be irreducibly itself, including Timo Ketola’s vocals, which spend most of the album in clean, slightly affected territory a la Danzig, but occasionally cut loose in snarling hardcore shouts. The production on Concrete Realms of Pain is warm and full, with a mix that keeps the buzzing bass guitar lines clearly identifiable throughout.”
– Angry Metal Guy

“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 Obelisk

“This is a band that effectively taps into the past greatness of many prolific musicians yet assembles these influences in a creatively potent manner. Initially, one gets the sense of a Samhain-style Goth-Punk-Hardcore sound that meets the gloom and Doom of a fuzzier brand of Type O Negative. The mid-era Glenn Danzig and Type O Negative-era Peter Steele are influences that run concurrently throughout the album. In short, this band hits on all the right occult-themed motifs with a classic sound rich with historic depth. It is an ambitious venture into the most pitch-black shadow, a heady brew that resonates more and more as the album progresses.”
– Anti-Hero Magazine