“You’re fucking worthless.”
2025 has proven to be the year of bringing back face piercings, bootleg band shirts, and every instrumental staple of what defined our high school experiences. It almost scratches the itch to irresponsibly download “linkin_park-numb.exe” from LimeWire with complete reckless abandon after skipping out on algebra homework. As we old fogies say, kids these days just wouldn’t understand. But hey, at least they’re getting a very good taste of what deathcore used to sound like about twenty years ago.
Admittedly, the revival scene, in a sense, is starting to become a tad overloaded. While certainly a welcome refreshment of the genre’s underpinnings, this resurgence has nonetheless resulted, seemingly, in new acts sprouting up just about every week. One extreme inevitably leads to another. As such, the fine line between obligation and passionate vigor is becoming increasingly thin. We are no longer at a point where the latter is a given. Warp speed riffs and turret breakdowns aren’t enough to distinguish yourself from others anymore, especially when you consider the sheer number of groups that are chomping at the bit to gain traction, regardless of whatever their motivations might be.
If any true separationists exist at this very moment, it is Coma Witch. Either it’s the Masshole attitude or the ungodly amount of protein in New England lobster that has given the Boston outfit the prerequisites needed for unleashing a feral showcase of every possible old school essential. Most will appropriately liken Coma Witch to Beneath the Massacre, but there are several sprinkles of Infinite Death-era Thy Art is Murder, Rings of Saturn, and Signal the Firing Squad ingrained in their sound to boot. Zero compromises are given, as The End of Forgiveness is a torture tool treasure trove of acid waterfalls to the face. The standard for deathcore has become unfathomably high this year, and somehow, for pure renaissance core specifically, Coma Witch has stolen everyone’s breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert with an absolute monster of a debut.
The End of Forgiveness is the manifestation of every shade of Myspace deathcore’s crimson palette. Hammer-ons? Gurgling growls? Emphasis on bass? Harmonized shouts? This enumeration could go on for quite a while, so let’s just leave it at “yes to everything”. Short, sweet, and to the poison-tipped point, Coma Witch has crafted a cyanide-dipped switchblade that could slice at a mile-long distance. Usually, throwing the kitchen sink can quickly devolve into a misguided venture with no sense of direction, but thanks to Coma Witch’s ability to establish disciplined control over their own self-induced chaos, The End of Forgiveness won’t wane on listeners, even with a million things going on simultaneously from start to finish.
This audible pandemonium comes in many different flavors on Coma Witch’s debut. Opening track “You Break Like Glass” aligns layered vocalization, pick slides, steel pillar snares, and lobotomizing chug sessions that come in endless volleys. Conversely, “Trauma Queen” throws in animalistic tapping as support ammunition for Coma Witch’s piercing riffs and automatic rifle blast beats. This subtle but impactful approach to nuance on each composition adds a much more immersive layer to The End of Forgiveness, minimizing the likelihood that any part of the record becomes stale.
Even with some amount of intermittent reprieve, The End of Forgiveness isolates itself from a vast slew of releases we’ve seen this year, due in large part to the volume of its heavier sections. When Coma Witch switches it up from ambient respites, the breakdowns and bridges invade like a swarm of radioactively modified locusts. In particular, “Synthetic Guilt Complex” and “Detestimony” offer no chance for recompense. Furthermore, little in the way of discernible cues is given. When Coma Witch is finishing up a stretch of sonic homicide, the subsequent assault has already been brewing and begins before any of us can say “Oh fuck”. Interchange this coherent is to be commended, especially with a genre that historically demands build-up to a default.
Ever wanted to hear Job for a Cowboy, Devourment, Whitechapel, and Chelsea Grin on the same record from a vocal perspective? You’re in luck. While it’s easy to lose track of just how many different techniques are used, the cornerstone styles are out in full force on The End of Forgiveness. There’s plenty of pig squeals and garbage disposal lows to go around, and these are thankfully evoked in healthy doses without breaking the overzealousness barrier. Jonny Davy may as well have hijacked the mic on “Mass Mortality Recall”, alongside Will Ramos sneaking in on “Schematics for Soporific Collapse”. If the musicianship on The End of Forgiveness doesn’t cause other acts to quit, the vocal exhibition alone would be reason enough. This is just unfair.
The End of Forgiveness isn’t just a record that sounds like the early 2000s. It feels like the entire decade. If you didn’t get your shit rocked in an All Shall Perish mosh pit after eating three slices of room-temperature cheese pizza or stagedive to As Blood Runs Black, forget it. PSYCHO-FRAME ultimately expanded upon deathcore’s foundations, retroactively speaking. Through the strict lens of basement venue deathcore, there isn’t another band doing it better right now than the group that has derived their moniker from a quintessential The Acacia Strain album, fittingly so. This year has been filled with damn-near generational releases, yet Coma Witch may have just pulled off the truest example of that. Fire up Halo 3 right now and knock back some Dominos. It’s 2007 all over again, and we all owe the biggest fucking thank you in the world to Coma Witch.
9.5/10
The End of Forgiveness has released as of October 10 and is available on all streaming platforms, including digital purchase on Coma Witch’s Bandcamp.