A review of the latest album by death metal band Brain Drill released on Metal Blade Records.
Braindrill have added their offering to the ceaseless skirmish that is the world of technical death metal. As metalheads with more than one brain cell to rub together have realised speed and stamina are not guaranteed winning commodities. Character, poise and an ability to carve something out of chaos are essential if any death metal album is going to survive in this proverbial jungle.
A minefield indeed as these specifics are desired for an album that will withstand critique and analysis, but also the album will be slated by the aforementioned numbskulls if it isn’t fast or crazy enough to be welcomed to the annals of this genre. Braindrill is a victory for the numbskulls as they are furiously fast and precise but wandering and boundless (only because they have let go of the leash).
Apocalyptic Feasting does what it says on the tin, as the sound of the album, with spiralling vortex guitars, bouncing bass and intense screamed vocals, sounds like a drill carving its way through bone and sinew. This is all well and good but it also feels like a contest, this is their ‘**** you Necrophagist’ - especially the bass solo in “Bury the Living”.
It is worth a listen however. The song “The Parasites” makes a welcome return from the EP of the same name and “Force-Fed Human Shit” is a charming little ditty (also from The Parasites EP), and maybe the strongest track as this pandemonium seems better suited to short songs. Plus the title track has satisfying thrashy breakdown in style of Odious Mortem.
There is also the occasional bit of street stomp (as your scribe likes to call it) - but then you find the same breakdown in “Bury the Living” and “Sadistic Abductive”, hoping that the listener will forget what has happened a few tracks later. As you try to work this out your train of thought will be derailed by the penultimate section of this song, which is particularly fierce.
Fact is, bands like this will get slated for their over the top technicality and intricate showboating, but this genre can be very productive as bands like Necrophagist and Odious Mortem have proved. All it takes is a little vision to congeal a song that actually works rather than just a collection of scathing riffs and twiddling mini-solos and scales. Braindrill have demonstrated the ability to use these licks as a flourish to a normal muted riff or as a melody in themselves.
Braindrill’s bedlam is ultimately satisfying and undeniably impressive, but lust for pace and technicality above all else may render the listen empty and unmemorable to some. Try Origin’s latest album instead.
