BRUNEL – Smash On

Plymouth based quartet Brunel are set to release their new record ‘Smash On’ on 11th May 2015. AltCorner Writer Josh Bannister gave us his thoughts…

Chaotic, noisy yet well rounded. Those are the things “Brunel” have managed to blend with this release. In terms of momentum sonically the record never loses any, all the songs are powerhouses that just keep steaming towards you.

However it’s just too long the first track is incredible and kicks you right in the teeth and leaves you excited bleeding from the ears wondering how they will attack you next. There is a number of excellent tracks on this record but I find myself getting brought back down between these tracks and almost switch off waiting for the next big riff too charge into my ears. Tracks like “High Speed Death” and “1 girl 12 cups” are perfect examples of this mix of chaos and melody that the band seems to be all about. I feel like if this would have been 4 – 6 tracks it would have been close to flawless. When you hear that intro you want to be aurally attacked until it’s over if more tracks like the final track “Pass Incomplete” had been featured on this record, it would of warranted being longer as this change of speed and feeling keeps you interested. This track is my personal favourite, the vocal floats perfectly and gives a wonderful change of pace while still rolling out the same attitude heard across the whole record and the ending of the song my god what a riff if that doesn’t have you nodding your head you are broken.

I can’t fault the musicianship on this record, the riff on “less is a bore” is a monster and the drummer of this band seems to play everything that needs to be played at exactly the right time to round ever song off into the beautiful mess it is. I love the vocals i couldn’t imagine this record with another vocal.

The influences of this band are clearly vast and wide but to me keeping in mind the way it’s recorded it heavily reminds me of Sabertooth Zombie frontman’s side project “The vibrating antennas”. If you like your music loud almost grating and vicious in its execution this is the record for you. I personally can see myself listening to this record again but one thing this record has got me wanting is too see these guys live because from the sounds of this record I can’t imagine they hold back one bit.

Josh Bannister

April 2, 2015

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