Festival of Death

I wanted to like this album. I really did. I like the most brutal of brutal death metal, so the brutality is not the problem here, per se. I like the other two Brodequin albums. They're a solid band live. But this is just not good. I'm not sure what went wrong, but I think the production may be largely to blame.

Brodequin only uses one guitar, and it's really low in the mix here. Mike Bailey is playing some really fast heavy shit, but you can't really hear individual riffs very well, so it just all sounds like a bunch of random noodling in the background. (Honestly, they had this problem to a lesser degree with I saw them live, but they DO mix the guitar a lot louder and fix this problem on the next album.) On the first album, you can also make out some of the grooves, but not here. I tried to focus my attention in figure out what the guitar is doing, and still couldn't make much of it. The bass just kinda rumbles in the background, and doesn't really fill the void left by the guitar.

So what does that leave that you're hearing here? Mostly vocals and drums. Jamie Bailey's low gutterhowl is at the top of the mix, overpowering everything. On the first album, it works because it's mixed in better. On the next album, he mixes in some highs for variety. Not here. Just constant "UUUUUURRRRRRR, UUUURRRR, UUUURRRRRR".

And as others have mentioned, the other thing loud in the mix here is the constant "RATATATAT" of the gravity blasts. Okay sure, the drummer is fast, but after about 3 or 4 songs, it just gets monotonous. Enough said about that.

TL;DR. This album basically just sounds like the same low growl over the the fast blastbeat. This band isn't bad, but this album is. Check out one of their other ones.