Prefer your doom nasty, crusty, and sludge-y as fuck? Well, you’re gonna absolutely love capital-“C” Cowardice then. (Your level of adoration for lowercase-“c” cowardice, on the other hand, is a personal matter, but do feel free to confide whatever you feel you must in the comments section below…) The New Jersey quintet’s admirably expansive and unpredictable debut full-length Without Condolence strives, roughly speaking, to bridge the gap between early Paradise Lost, Black Sabbath circa Vol. 4, and latter day Gorguts — a perfect backdrop for vocalist John Jones’ feral blackened death shriek-growl-shriek.
“We’re all in a handful of bands between us all,” Jones tells Decibel. “I also do vocals for Black Urn. Chris plays guitar in Sunrot and Thera Roya. Ryan drums for Sentient Horror and Worthless, Stephen does vocals in Inertia and plays guitar in Young House, and Julian plays guitar in Null & Void. Compared to our other bands, Cowardice is far slower than our other project and with our instruments being more down-tuned.
“The songs cover a few subjects from nature to the human condition to the struggle of existence,” he continues. “I wouldn’t say there was a overall theme in mind when I wrote them, but I instead had the intention of giving each individual song’s music some backbone so to speak. But with all my lyrics, I’d rather the listener interpret the song as they wish.”
