Album Review: CHEAP COFFINS - “I Am Mara”
Written by: Tom Wilson| Monday 18th June 2026
Wollongong’s One Man Army Marches To The Beat Of His Own MIDI Drum
To tell the story of CHEAP COFFINS is also to tell the story of how I came to Sense Music Media six years ago, so please indulge me for a paragraph. A one-man-army of industrial metal hailing from Wollongong, Troy Koglin came into my life as a graphic design client when Australia first went into lockdown in 2020, and I started doing free artwork for bands as a way of A) assuaging my guilt at having a job when everyone else was out of work, and B) staying sane. He needed a logo, so we came up with the one you see here. Later in 2020, he released Terror Amazonia, a frankly stunning debut that married TOOL and NIN worship with the DIY approach of AUTHOR & PUNISHER, which could be performed entirely by Troy, often while accompanied by performance artist Liberté la Femme, who would perform interpretive dance using paint and other props.
After six long years, he’s finally followed it up. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting I Am Mara.
Of Two begins with a slow, languid synth and some distant xylophone, before Troy’s distorted voice croons through the darkness. A slow beat comes in, heavy and resonant, like Phil Collins about to belt out the opening to In The Air Tonight, and things grow louder and darker, before opening into a huge chorus hook. Next track Midnight Sun pulses to life with a scratchy synth and a beat like a motion tracker from the movie Aliens, as a melodic verse opens into the best chorus Troy has ever written. I’m singing it to myself already, and the album isn’t even out yet! After a massive melody, we hear a quiet piano, and we soon recognise the sound of Troy sobbing uncontrollably, and realise that recording this must have taken a lot out of him. Fortunately, it all comes across in the album, and it’s one of the strongest tracks.
The distorted drum loop that opens Alpha-137 calls to mind NIN’s The Perfect Drug, and layers of Troy’s melodies unfurl over the clatter and hiss. Violent, Irrational & Inherently Unstable sees Troy’s singing voice open up over a tinkering piano, before a malevolent guitar looms over the mix like thunderclouds, showcasing the coolest riffs on the album, before collapsing into a maelstrom of layered noise and deafening chords. From here, we segue into (into the cave), and like listening to a radio play or audiobook, we hear a crackling fire, and a mysterious voice starts to speak in a language we don’t recognise as thunder cracks outside. Suddenly, a RAMMSTEIN-style guitar riff comes stomping down on our heads like a size 15 boot, and we are kicked around by the brutality of Spit Rape, as Troy screams like someone having a nervous breakdown in a wind tunnel. We transition into the shuddering noise of The Transformation of Olympia, and a beat begins to pulse through the crackling distortion as Troy’s clean vocals soar. The synths rise as a piano tinkers, before heavy tribal drumming comes in, and the sound of Troy beating the shit out of his pads peaks before falling away, leaving only the sound of warbling keys.
Ten-minute epic Tri Thula opens with a beautiful clean vocal over a cello, where Troy has layered his voice until it sounds like he’s singing with a choir, before the music slows and falls away, as we sink down another level into the darkness. Beautiful acoustic guitar becomes angrier and darker, as an electric guitar takes over and shifts into distorted riffs that worship at the altar of TOOL. Eventually, they too fall away until only eerie synths remain, until Troy’s lonely voice penetrates the darkness. Watching him pull this off live is going to be incredible. After ten incredible minutes, we segue into closer (kismet), and like Hurt closing off The Downward Spiral, the volume surges into one final deafening dirge.
Less dependent on sound FX than Terror Amazonia, there is definitely a concept to this collection of songs, but I Am Mara doesn’t feel like a concept album. Instead, it feels like Troy is pushing his songwriting skills into redline, and we’re all the better for it. This is the sound of an artist levelling up.
I Am Mara is out everywhere June 19th. Get it here.
