Review Summary: BUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRPPPPPPPP!!!!
Metalheads, we have been spoiled by death metal so far in 2024 and based on anticipated releases, it should only get better. Brutalism is a death metal band hailing from Boise, Idaho and these dudes are barely out of high school. That little fact alone makes their debut full length
Solace in Absurdity all the more impressive.
Can you guess what type of death metal BRUTALism plays? Correct, they play an extremely brutal brand of death metal with riffs so ***ing intense you can actually feel the flesh burning off of your face. The riffage courtesy of guitarists Landon and Jason is as heavy as a cinderblock tied to a murder victim’s ankle as the killer throws the lifeless body into a large body of water. This is BRUTAL death metal so of course the vocals are your standard suuuuuper guttural burp-esque growling. We all know that this type of vocals aren’t everyone’s cup of tea but it's hard to execute them better than Slameron Bass here. Yes, that is his name.
What really puts
Solace in Absurdity over the top for me personally is the experimental and progressive touches that Brutalism adds to their brand of brutal, bloody death metal. Imagine the guitar tone and chunky basslines of an album like Atheist’s
Piece of Time or Artificial Brain’s
Infrared Horizon and that will give you an idea of what to expect. This album stays true to the mixtures of early 90s lofi and muddy brutal death metal while also adding in the prog elements to sound a bit more modernized at the same time.
Don’t let the word “progressive” scare you away. Brutalism is very much one of the most insane and heaviest bands going in the death metal scene today. The prog touches are subtle and never feel overblown in any way.
Solace in Absurdity pays homage to bands like Defeated Sanity and Cynic alike. It is an absolute clinic on how to make brutal death metal the right way without ever sounding stagnant. Embrace the riffs brethren and jam this HARD.
