BrainBath – BrainBath [EP]

I can’t believe that I have taken this long to review the debut EP from Scottish Death Metal miscreants BrainBath but I am going to swiftly remedy that situation! Six tracks of dark, sinister Death Metal, interspersed with audio clips from various horror and gore flicks, reminiscent of US Death merchants Mortician. BrainBath have a far more listenable sound than Mortician, though still with a repugnant air of putridity about their sound. Opener ‘Garbage Truck Suicide’ builds slowly but soon unleashes a crippling array of thunderous drumming, throbbing filthy bass tones and meaty, riffs mired in a layer of murk and detritus, and all topped off by harrowing growled/roared vocals. Further into the EP and tracks like ‘Dumped In Septic Waste’ offer up more of an aural assault, a barrage of unrelenting feral riffs and pugilistic skin beating, broken up by bouts of slower, crushing and catchy melody!

For me the doom laden punishing and unhurried tones that open ‘The Stench of Burning Human Flesh’ are Death Metal at it’s very best, and the song opens into a free flowing ode to violence and gore with a very catchy lyrics, before petering out into the groove drenched rhythms of ‘Stripped Clean’, a track with more than a nod or two to Motorhead in its simple song structures whilst still retaining the crushing heaviness of Obituary or Autopsy!

Closing out the EP is more savagery in the form of ‘The Thing From Another World’ whose constant pace changes from creeping, slowed down malevolence to maniacal, blisteringly fast intensity are designed to keep you in a permanent state of unease, before ‘Boneyard’ signals the death knell with one final bout of zany horror based skulduggery and one last slab of death laden barbarity!

I apologise for the oversight in not bringing your attention towards this epic debut EP sooner. Normal service has now been resumed! (Marksson)