Reviews: BIG|BRAVE, DDENT, Mimi Barks, Profane Burial (Matt Bladen & Mark Young)

BIG|BRAVE - In Grief Or In Hope (Thrill Jockey) [Matt Bladen]

BIG|BRAVE are one of the bands that exemplify experimental music more than any others, the trio have never played anything they've done safely, and with this new album they make a shift towards another style yet to be utilised.

In Grief Or In Hope favours an "electro-acoustic" sound where the guitars take prominence for the first time, these songs are all hooked around dense distorted guitar walls, effects laden and just at the apex between noise and beauty, cascading between shimmering highs and fuzzing lows, there's a balance been natural and unnatural here.

It's the first time long time touring bassist Liam Andrews has joined Robin Wattie and Matthieu Bell band in the studio and his contribution cannot be understated. Creating a density below the guitar explorations, his bass adds a heavy thump below the dissonant guitars, repeating loops and haunting vocals.

There's a juxtaposition on this tenth album as BIG|BRAVE have created a style I can only refer to as "drone pop", expanding on the lyrical content from their previous albums, this is record that has been etched by pain and struggle but counters these dense caverns of distortion with acoustic layering and melodic phrasing, welcoming hope against the tide of pain grief can brings. 8/10

DDENT - Feeding The Voids Luster (Chien Noir) [Mark Young]

I just want to confirm something with this. The accompanying bio made quite a statement that I feel is completely necessary to add into this review, just before I get started. The five songs here were effectively captured in two takes, sans samples or any other studio fripperary. 

I’m so intrigued by this, given the relative length of the songs within, I’m hoping that once I press play that this will be one of my listening experiences of the year. That statement, to me, promises a lot. It suggests that this is a group of musicians that are potentially operating at the top of their game and that they take this game very seriously. Or it could be just smoke and mirrors, but I’m hoping that it’s the former.

DDENT is a French instrumental post-metal and doom metal band, just to set that scene, and the lead off track is Dis à la lune qu’elle vienne, a slow and lumbering beast in which they also drop the guttural of guttural vocalising in to add an even harder edge to it. Leaning more to the doom side, it’s a heavy sound that acts as a simple appetizer, one that leads straight into the longer Longue, obscure et triste lune. That it shares a similar pace and build as the opener isn’t a real surprise and makes perfect sense in making sure that the leaps it takes are perfectly organic. 

The thing here is that it is built around ascending patterns, ones where it will tee up an emotional reaction in the listener. This one is definitely cut from the doomier side of things, with arrangements that are the sonic equivalent of a clenched fist and I guess you could describe it as pugnacious, its certainly focused. The story takes a turn, the speed increased and those vocals return. 

What I do love about this is how they take that central melody and weave a frenzied web from it. Suddenly its two songs down and you aren’t quite sure where that time went. And then they go into cavernous riffs with Arzel. Tempo is slowed, but a gear is stepped up. That initial 1-2 riff build changes into something that is beautifully heavy, delivered without changing the pace so it hits with you. 

What they show with this one is that you don’t have to squeeze a million notes in, something that is authentic and chooses the right things to say will go so much further. That magic riff returns around the 5 minute mark and I want you to listen for it because its mint. The whole thing is actually, especially the ending two minutes where they change it around again, its just quality. 

And they don’t stop there, Kohol kicks in, absolutely soaked in wah and its conscious of the mood created by the three that came before and just sets about keeping that mood going. It’s the strangest thing, being locked in so quickly that the review is practically writing itself. 

Is Kohol much different from the others? Well if you look at tempo then not really but then they are not here to break speed records. They are looking to evoke feelings in you, and more importantly to make you move. If you are of the persuasion to smoke or imbibe certain products, you would do it to this. At the heart of it is a simplicity, driven by a need to make things as memorable as possible.

The end track is massive, a near 22 minute monolith called Noir taureau de douleur. Loosely translated as a Black Bull Of Pain, this is the masterwork here, the other tracks just setting things up for you. They don’t deviate from the established patterns, and for that I’m glad because as it stands this is a focused exercise in sonic storytelling, one where (and I’m going to repeat myself) they look to use standard arrangements but with super simple (ok, I mean not THAT simple) measures that mean so much more to me than a virtuoso display of nothing. 

This is real music with a heft to it that you can switch on and just slip away to. It sounds fantastic too, possessing a warm feel to it but still hits hard when they step on the distortion. This is as good as anything I’ve heard that sits within the doom adjacent field, and the mark of this is wanting to actually play this on the guitar (at least for me it is). Exceptional stuff! 9/10

Mimi Barks - Dreamstate Of Fear (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]

Doom Trap, yeah me either, but that's the genre tag for experimental Germany, read Berlin, via London scene artist Mimi Barks. 

Known for ritual exorcism ms on a live stage that has garnered Barks plenty of press coverage and converted slots at Download, Wacken and Bloodstock. Her sound has developed from the influences that surrounded her, punk, hip-hop, techno and metal that all collided on her debut record Doom Trap, but with Dreamstate Of Fear there's yet more uncompromising music which doesn't want abide by any sort of rules, taking her unique style of dissonant industrial metal meets pulsating trap beats down even darker pathways. 

There's an intimacy to this record, it's perhaps more introspective than previous releasea however it means that the songs here are perhaps much heavier, angrier promoting fear as a weapon rather than a weakness. It's an EP that came from "emotional exhaustion", beginning with the pulsing beat of Dreamstate Of Hell as the guitars kick in for the extreme flashes. 

Ophelia gets a little more melodic with a big chorus and electronics glistening, while the introspection of Jericho brings a cleaner vocal style, two short cuts, one in German, leading into the insistent Butterfly In Chains. 

With three short, interlude-like linking tracks, you get probably four new actual songs but that's not the point as an artist like Mimi Barks is about creating something with that is a collective whole rather than individual moments. 7/10

Profane Burial - Desolate Echoes Of Turmoil (These Hands Melt) [Mark Young]

Den Fortaptes Krønike is the mental starter from Profane Burial, in which there are certain points where I had to check that it hadn’t flicked into double speed. It hadn’t, it was just the way they wrote it. The closest way I can describe this is being technical death metal with a beating heart. Yes, it’s incredibly technical but there are moments where they run with pure brutality combined with moments of symphonic beauty. 

There are moments where they are flying and perform the musical equivalent of an emergency stop, only to start the machine up once more. Having a run time of over 7 minutes is a bold move, having the confidence that their material will grab the listener in a positive way and then keep them engaged is massive so its lucky that it doesn’t suffer from any kind of arrest. 

Repeating what ultimately feels like a repeat of it with Prognostic Augural Obsolescence is not the best. Let me point out that from a technical standpoint, it is mind blowing. In some ways, it could be considered the flip side but for me they said more or less the same thing on that track and there is only so far this will take them. For those that live and breathe the technical side of metal, this is definitely for you. For me, I’m hoping that the remaining songs offer up something different.

Triumph Of Dreadful Aftermath royally kicks off and thankfully moves into the cinematic/symphonic with a blinding song. They dial back on the madness and hit us with a more streamlined but furious attack that is still chock full of melodic patterns that make symphonic metal so good to listen to when its done right, which it is on here. Pulling back on the technical side allows them to do more with their sound and I would suggest that this should have come as track 2. Again, purely my opinion and you might think differently. 

Channeling Epiphany comes in with riffs that sharp you could slice a loaf of bread on them. This one is more frenzied in approach, almost like they are just about staying in control before the whole thing collapses under its own weight of ideas. Those riffs are sliced open with a lead break which then moves aside for a piano led moment, its tempo speeding up like its possessed and bang they are back. It’s another massive step forward for them, this and Triumph repairing the damage caused earlier. I have to point out that at no point does their energy fall away, even in those restrained moments where they are waiting for their moment to kick back in.

Horror Code Pt 2 picks up on a classical motif and supercharges it, expanding as a wall of sound as they run forth with it. That super tight control in full display on this one, and you can’t help but marvel at it.

It leaves Malicious Discomfort to pull the shutters down as we say goodbye to their 3rd full length release. You expect them to come out at a full tilt, and for 20 seconds they do before for some reason they drop it to remind us that they still have a piano which could be used at any time. They come back to the front with all guns firing – its technical, emotive, symphonic, all of the things you wanted and it needed to be. 

There is nothing left unused on this, no trick not tried in order to make this one of the key songs of the year. I’ve often said that the last song should equal the first in how it lands with the listener. Great albums don’t fall away and the final berth should leave you wanting more from them. Its exactly the case with this; It is the best of the material here (apologies to the others) as they machete their way through it with a display that is sometimes controlled, other times off the rails, it is absolutely manic.

Ultimately, it’s a mad 40 or so minutes in their company. For the most part, it’s a stunning piece of work, my only criticism is the opening 1-2 sounding too close to each other. That is my only issue, and its one that is soon buried by the technically driven symphonic madness that follows. There is riffs for days, handled with a ferocity that a lot of bands would give their picking hands to have. Top class. 8/10