Brown Book
Got an email today from this band with the usual promotional stuff, but since the grammar and spelling was above average and they weren’t pushy, I decided to check them out. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting promotional emails from bands, it makes me feel special, but after years of being on Myspace, I’ve become a bit weary of the “HEY *insert pasted username here* YOUR SPECIAL THX FOR BEING OUR FRIEND CHECK OUT OUR STUFF AND MAKE SURE 2 BUY THIS AND PROMOTE THIS THANKS BYE” messages that bombard you every time you open your inbox. One bonus to having started this site is that the emails I get through the site are usually much less obnoxious. Wow, I digress.
At any rate, these guys sounded intelligent and interesting so I checked out their bandcamp and googled them a bit to see what I could discover. As an aside, I was apprehensive of bandcamp at the beginning but now I’ve grown to really love it. I hated the lack of social networking and interactivity at first, as I love to network with musical people, but the layouts are always clean and concise, it’s easy to support artists you enjoy, and my browser doesn’t ever freeze like every time I try to load a damn Myspace page. Plus, the decision to let barely computer literate people design their own layouts was the worst idea Myspace ever had. I don’t have a bandcamp so I’m not sure what your creative limits are when it comes to customizing them, but I haven’t seen one flashing animated gif of a dancing skull yet so that’s a good sign they’ve learned from the mistakes of others. Again, I digress. I shouldn’t have drank three cups of coffee before this writing.
Brown Book is described in their promotional stuff as an extreme metal band from.. well, all over the place. Their members are from Boston, New York, Tennessee and California, so I’m not sure if this is an internet collaboration or what. And yes, I know Boston is not a state. Having never been in a band, except for a very brief stint in a Nirvana cover band called the Treecows (what??) when I was 12 or so, I’m not really sure how those mechanics would work. Maybe they are just from all over, but have come together in one place. Maybe someone who knows will comment on this and put me out of my wondering misery.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, because “extreme metal” is about as broad a description as it gets. The first song, Dark Times, has a pretty awesome sludgy groove amongst the sometimes frenzied drums. If I had to describe it (which I do because I’m reviewing it), I would call it “deceptively simple”, which is very, very good. Also, this band appears to be totally instrumental, which is always lovely and, in most cases, preferred. As anyone who knows me can attest, I am particularly picky about vocals, pretty funny considering I can’t sing a note to save my life. I have a lot of respect for a band who, instead of laying really terrible vocals on top of beautiful music, isn’t afraid to say “Fuck it, none of us can sing, screw the vocals!” Or, if they’re inclined to pretension (and alliteration), something about preserving the integrity of the carefully constructed compositions they’ve created.
Onwards. XVI Chapel, a song that’s heavy on melodic guitar parts is good, but I wish it was a bit more interesting at times. Maybe that’s because it has the longest runtime of the 4 tracks at 4:13. I found the bass to be sorely missed in the beginning, but it picked up towards the end of the track. Of the four songs on the bandcamp, Dark Times and Azma Attack are definitely the highlights with XVI Chapel and Comb Over not quite doing it for me. I think that might just be a preference on my part as I prefer music with clear, easy grooves to them as opposed to more of a disjointed, off-tempo style. Though all the tracks have an experimental feel to them, the tracks I liked were easier for me to follow and therefore, sounded better to me. Call me simple-minded. Actually, don’t, my feelings bruise easily.
This review marks the first time I’ve ever actually reviewed a band that mailed me a submission for the site. The fact that this took so long is based solely on a inferiority complex that I have, that a band who might like me to speak about them must not be very good at all. Thankfully, Brown Book is indeed, pretty damn good, destroying every negative thought I’ll ever have about myself from this day forward. I wish! No, but seriously, I’m definitely going to check out more bands that appear in my inbox thanks to these guys. Below is their bandcamp. Please, please check them out, tell me what you think. Your agreement validates me, and your disagreement educates me.
http://brownbook.bandcamp.com/
Note: No Clean Singing did a really well written review of Brown Book, found here. The text appears in a PDF attached to the email, with the following quote:
“..Brown Book have been impelled into what some lazy commentators might call ‘experimental’ or ‘noise’ metal…”
As such, I spent the entire review quite neurotically avoiding the words “experimental” and “noise”, despite them coming to mind often, but upon re-read, one “experimental” snuck itself into the second last paragraph. Damnit. Lazy it is..
