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5.0
- Bands:
BRUTALSM - Duration: 00:36:41
- Available from: 04/05/2024
- Label:
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Comatose Music
Four years after forming and with some self-produced demos behind them, Brutalism has the chance to expose itself through a prestigious showcase like that of Comatose Music through their first album “Solace In Absurdity”.
The very young American combo seems to dive headlong into the national tradition of the most exasperated technical death, leaving out more modern imprints in favor of a style that certainly harks back more to the ‘distant’ 90s than to today’s core derivations with which formations often sympathize latest. Therefore, having established a structure dedicated to the continuous proposition of aggressive and overflowing sound assaults, one is certainly not left favorably impressed by the eloquent introduction of the first track: the sound is immediately confused and crackling, and one certainly does not need to be a professional sound engineer to understand that something is wrong with the continuous peaks that repeat as soon as the double kick comes into play. When listening to the album in its entirety, you will realize that it is not just a risky choice in the mix, but an annoying production that does not enhance the musical work of its performers at all.
Even stylistically, it is difficult to cite any significant passage in the first part of “Solace In Absurdity”: in the name of a forced search for the most convoluted riff possible, we end up suffocating the complete meaning of the song, often exceeding the labile border between complex and chaotic . Unexpectedly, things change radically in the last songs of the album, synthesizing in the long and final “Asyncritus” a partially more mature, calm style, capable of giving more space to the rhythmic and melodic creativity of Brutalism. We don’t know if the album is made up of songs written in two different moments distinct from each other, but the overall effect is precisely that of a clear lack of homogeneity between the two parts of the album. “Compulsive Act Of Repulsion” and “Consuming Obsession” could at times recall the exploits of Erik Lindmark and his Deeds Of Flesh (a name that must have long been on the stereo of the four from Boise), but unfortunately only rare ones are not enough more exhilarating flashes to lift the weight of a work that struggles to find its own identity or more peculiar moments that justify its existence.
It is not the effort of these guys to want to reinterpret an old school style and aesthetic that is to be blamed here, but unfortunately their crude realization, devoid of a compelling general vision and a sound suited to the context.
