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BRAINBATH
BrainBath EP

Macho (2022)
Rating: 8/10

Suddenly the land of Scotland is vomiting out several impressive death metal bands and here’s another to add to the list, BrainBath.

This five-piece hasn’t been around long but they’ve served up six tracks of wholesome death metal here, and they entertain along the way with track titles such as ‘Garbage Truck Suicide’ and ‘Dumped In Septic Waste’. But musically it’s serious, riveting death metal.

‘Garbage Truck Suicide’ oozes in Autopsy-styled fashion with morose and macabre churnings of doom built upon the foundation of Lobotomizer’s gruelling rhythm axe and Kendo’s morbid leads. In the swamp of doom-laden slop there’s the hissing percussion of Blooter, the clanking bass of Barrett and the howling yowls of a madman from vocalist Warmaster Kwondo.

For me, ‘Garbage Truck Suicide’ is the best track on the EP, more so due to its heavy, downtuned grisly introduction. But when the pace quickens we’re still in a swampy mess of guzzling, melancholic tumult, with the instruments providing that punky Autopsy-cum-Impetigo pace then deflating, seeping noxious gas and sewer pus before embarking on another speeding adventure.

‘Dumped In Septic Waste’ provides further filth and fetid growls, where again that bass and drum work in tandem to provide a fat, blubbery wall of sickness. The foul rattling constructed is just rank with dripping gore; the tracks come thick n’ fast, globules of septic haste which burst pustular slop onto the ears.

The gnashing ‘The Thing: From Another World’ again echoes of that Autopsy-style of drudgery, and ‘Boneyard’ is a zombified geyser boiling and spouting harsh, blistering plops onto the skin as the frantic fuzz entwines with the ghastly vocal burps. Meanwhile, the grimy sludge groove of ‘Stripped Clean’ commands the undead to rise from steaming graves as a punky rhythm kick-starts the gloomy pace.

‘The Stench Of Burning Human Flesh’ cascades with simmering axe work and simmering percussion before the bass chimes like a muddy plonk as the combo embarks on a gnawing, gruelling trudge through the sewers of flesh, bone and excrement. It’s all so squalid and infected, the band chomping on great lumps of flesh before each segment of horrible pace overcomes you, stuffing your mouth with squirming maggots and battering your corpse with severed limbs.

BrainBath is one of the sickest death metal sounding acts out there, constantly burping up gloom-laced thrashing menace in that familiar, fog-ridden fusty styling we just can’t help but slurp up.

Neil Arnold

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