Cogas/Among The Dead: How To Become A Ghost/2025 Full Length Review

 

  Cogas  are  a  band  from  the  United  Kingdom  that  has  been  featured  before  in  this  zine  and  on  this  recording  goes  for  an  old  school  mixture  of  black  and  death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  released  2025  album  "Among  The  Dead:  How  To  Become  A  Ghost"  which  will  be  released  in  April.

  Rain  and  thunder  sounds  start  off  the  album  along  with  some  clean  playing  a  few  seconds  which  also  returns  on  later  tracks  later  before  going  into  a  heavier  direction.  Vocals  are  a  mixture  of  death  metal  growls  and  black  metal  screams  while  all  of  the  musical  instruments  also  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  and  blast  beats  are  added  into  the  faster  sections  of  the  songs.

  When  tremolo  picking  is  added  into  the  faster  riffing  they  also  give  the  album  more  of  a  raw  feeling  while  the  riffs  also  add  in  a  lot  of  melody.  Throughout  the  recording  you  can  also  hear  a  good  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  along  with  some  of  the  tracks  are  also  very  long  and  epic  in  length  as  well  as  the  music  also  being  very  heavily  rooted  in  the  old  school  era  and  spoken  words  are  added  on  the  closing  track.

  On  this  recording  Cogas  goes  back  to  the  classic  era  of  black  metal  and  mixes  it  with  the  brutality  of  death  metal  to  create  a  very  heavy  release.  The  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  Sardinian  Folklore,  Suicide,  Death,  Necromancy  and  Paranormal  themes.   

  In  my  opinion  this  is  another  great  sounding  recording  from  Cogas  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  old  school  black  and  death  metal,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Dead  Reflected"  "Autopsy  Of  A  Hallow"  and  "La  fiamma  che  respiro".  8  out  of  10.

  https://cogas.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Cogas.Black.Death

https://www.instagram.com/cogas_official/     

Cogas Interview

 

1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording and release of the new album?

Hello! Thank you so much for this interview!

 After releasing the album we are finally playing live, which for us is vital and I am happy to tell you that we are already starting to write new music!

2.Recently you have released a new album, musically how does it differ from your previous ep's?

Yes, "Unconscious Sons Of The Reptile God" is the closure of a circle that started three years ago, the differences between this album and our first Ep "At the Gates of Pazuzu"are obviously many,starting from the quality of the sound,going through the music, however the Ep and the full lenght are linked by the same narrative,we could say that "At the Gates of Pazuzu" is the birth of our Coga and "Unconscious Sons of The Reptile God" represent her short life through black magic which will lead her to an inevitable death .

We tried to create a mixture between classic Black Metal atmospheres and the violent punch in the face of Death Metal, plus a mix of our personal influences, if we succeeded or not it is only up to the listener to say, anyway we are absolutely satisfied with the final result!

3.A lot of your lyrics cover occult, necromancy and mythological themes, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in those topics?

Those topics have been part of my life since I was a child,I had an imprint from a young age on spirituality and horror movies,for me it is very natural to write about these things.

Most of the people who came across Cogas thinks that we are one of those band who strictly talk about the folklore of their land, part of this is true but the thing that i really love of our band is the freedom that this "Coga" figure gives to me, not much is been written about this character so it allow me to reinvent it in the ways that I prefer.

The whole concept behind the band is to represent the "carnality through death",the back artwork of our album gives a perfect example of this.

4.On a previous ep you also have a track called 'Fuck Your Black Metal Scene', can you tell us a little bit more about your dislike for the trendier aspects of the genre?

FYBMS is a pure provocation towards this  "philosophical" Black Metal wave that we are all living in those years.

For us it is like this genre is losing the wild spirit that made Black Metal  the most violent music on this planet, nowadays the scene is too composed, too polite, too afraid to offend.

We are living a very boring time in the extreme music were everyone wants to be taken seriously everyone feels like if their opinion matters. .guess what?!,none gives a fucking fuck about you or your fake knowledge of dark arts. I always said that if you really wanna meet Satan you have just to walk at 3am in Seven Sisters,Brixton,Stockwell..places like those.

So... fuck your black metal scene...ugh

5.I know that the bands name means "Witches' in Sardinian, how does this name fit in with the musical style that you play?

It fits because our witch is a very violent one, and so the music that we play.

It fits because you can tell when you listen to the album that we don't follow any scheme or cliche..is pure Sardinian underground music, always free, always anarchic, always dangerous!

6.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new album cover?

The artwork was done by the great "Coito Negato ''.

He captured exactly the atmosphere that we were seeking, something connected with Sardinian folklore but not in an orthodox way, the back cover especially expresses at his best the whole concept behind the band.

We came across his art through another artwork that he made years ago for the Italian band Hate&Merda  and we immediately said "that's our man! "His style is really something else and he is an amazing person with a great patience and excellent manners.. which is a very rare thing to find in those days.  

7.Hs the band had any opportunities to do any live shows or open to the idea?

Yes of course! Last September the 24th we finally played on the stage of the Dev (our favorite pub in Camden by our friend Chris..ps if you are a metalhead and you are in London you can't miss a beer there!)

Presenting in full the new album, a really great evening! Then we played again October 22nd at New Cross Together with our friends Tableau Mort.

 Full venue, engaged audience and fresh beer! 

We look forward to playing in January 2022 for the "Sadistic Offering" in Bristol now!

8.Currently the band is unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?

well yes, we are still without a label unfortunately, we were hoping to find one able to help us grow our name or at least by promoting the album, but that's okay, luckily we have many friends who helped us to spread our music all over the world!

9.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black and death metal?

From what we have seen, quite well, we have received a lot of positive feedback from various parts of the world such as Canada, Australia, US, and of course Europe!We really thank you all, it was unexpected! Knowing that our musical idea is appreciated so much makes us very proud.

10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

We will continue to think about it day by day, but we are starting to write what will be the continuation of Unco, and I can assure you that the new album will be even more violent, faster death and black than Unconscious but always keeping our Cogas style!

11.What are you listening to nowadays?

I am a fan of death metal, black, thrash etc ... so I always try to listen to new stuff, even if I never give up on the various Cannibal, Suffocation, Marduk, Dying Fetus, Immortal and so on! But above all I tend to listen to a lot of underground music whether it's Italian or not .. like Deathcrush,Mgla, Atvm, Skullfucked, Blasphemer UK & Ita, Worstenemy, Deicide, Feed Them Death and so on ..lots of good music!

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

First of all thank you guys from all the members of Cogas for this interview! Then a dutiful greeting goes to all those who follow us, listen and support our band, friends, family etc .. thank you very much!

See you around soon! Stay Black, Stay Dead.

AS TOIME FÜ DEATH

COGAS

https://cogas.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Cogas.Black.Death/

https://www.instagram.com/cogas_official/

Cogas/Unconscious Sons Of The Reptile God/2021 Full Length Review

 

  Cogas  are  a  band  from  the  United Kingdom  that  plays  an  old  school  mixture  of  black  and  death  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  self  released  2021  album  "Unconscious  Sons  Of  The  Reptile  God"  which  will  be  released  in  September.

  Distorted  sounds  and  high  pitched  yet  grim  sounding  black  metal  screams  start  off  the  album  before  going  into  a  heavier  direction.  All  of  the  musical  instruments  also  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  while  melodies  are  also  added  into  some  of  the  guitar  riffing  and  when  the  music  speeds  up  a  decent  amount  of  blast  beats  can also be  heard.

  Death  metal  growls  can  also  be  heard  quite  a  bit  throughout  the  recording  while  the  music  is  heavily  rooted  in  the  90's  era.  The  songs  also  add  in  a  decent  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  along  with  a  couple  of  tracks  also  being  very  long  and  epic  in  length  as  well  as  one  song  also  introducing  clean  playing  onto  the  album.

  All  of  the  musical  instruments  on  the  album  also  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them  and  when  tremolo  picking  is  finally  utilized  it  also  gives  the  music  more  of  a  raw  feeling  along  with  one  song  also  adding  in  some  depressive  touches  as  well  as  the  guitar  leads  also  being  done  in  a  very  melodic  style.  The  production  sounds  very  raw  and  old  school  while  the  lyrics  are  a  concept  album  based  upon  Sardinian  Witchcraft  and  a  person's  struggle  with  the  Stockholm  Syndrome  condition.

  In  my  opinion  Cogas  are  a  very  great  sounding  old  school  mixture  of  black  and  death  metal  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  those  musical  genres,  you  should  check  out  this  band.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "Unconsciousness  Sons  Of  The  Reptile  God"  and  "Ettagramma".  8  out  of  10.

https://cogas.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Cogas.Black.Death/

https://www.instagram.com/cogas_official/