Coscradh – Carving the Causeway to the Otherworld
Release Date: 20th February 2026
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Bandcamp
Genre: Blackened Death Metal
FFO: Teitanblood, Malthusian, Blasphemy.
Review By: Aeons Burning
As I write this, I’ve just returned home from my Monday grocery store run, it would normally be another typical Monday. But not today. You see, I live in Southern California, and today is the one day it decides to completely fucking piss rain outside. I thought to myself that I have an umbrella, so I should be good, right? No. On my way home, the wind was so strong the umbrella actually inverted a couple times and I had to fight the wind to hold on to it and my grocery bags. Why am I telling you all this? I also happened to be listening to the new Coscradh album, Carving the Causeway to the Otherworld, and the combined harsh torrent with the face-melting riffs and solos Coscradh offers gave me a very singular experience of holding back the storm like a warrior from a pulpy fantasy novel. I felt powerful, and Coscradh are a massive force to be reckoned with.
I’ve had the privilege of seeing Coscradh live a few years ago, and they were just as unhinged live as they are on record. Their debut Nahanagan Stadial was already an immense blackened death assault, and they had some pretty big shoes to fill with Carving the Causeway to the Otherworld. Opening track Five Fifths Awaken is more a buildup to the eponymous track, but it’s an incredibly menacing intro that takes the typical “first track isn’t anything but a tone-setter” trend and flips it on its head, being both an intro track and a proper song. It’s a nice change and I wish more bands would do it. Everything really takes off on the title track, and Coscradh proceed to sonically annihilate the listener for the remaining 42 minutes with a constant barrage of massive riffs and equally massive, scorching solo sections. Lead single Caesar’s Revolution showcases Coscradh at some of their most unhinged, with vocalist Ciarán Ó Críodáin delivering a barbaric vocal performance that, across the album, has made him one of my favorite vocalists in the blackened death metal sphere. There’s no one standout track here, either, as everything on Carving the Causeway to the Otherworld is designed to attack, and everything feels like it could go off the rails at any given time.
I don’t really have any complaints here. Even the instrumental track, The Calling, adds a good bit of menace, and adds to the atmosphere of the record. I’m glad Coscradh have continued in their blend of particularly oppressive blackened death metal, because it shows that they’re not just a one-trick wonder. I hope they have more in the chamber, because Carving the Causeway to the Otherworld is a particularly vicious assault that sets the bar high for blackened death metal this year.
(4 / 5)
