Bran announces its first album.
From Bohemia, Czech Republic, the band composed of Vojtech Blackwild Cerny on guitar and vocals, Ygraen Orlok on drums and S. Vaclav Kobylak on bass signed in 2022 with Signal Rex for the release of Odchazeni.
The album starts with Skryta mista, a first composition which immediately asserts the most straightforward and Old School roots of an icy Atmospheric Black Metal, perfectly represented by the cover created by Pavlina Kovarikova. We Have a mystical and majestic atmosphere, but also raw screams which sometimes seem to be a bit erased by the mix. Sharp riffs are also sometimes adorned with soaring and dissonant harmonics, then Tisice hvezd takes over with a warlike and aggressive acceleration which still leaves an important place to the impressive drums. Like the previous one, the track is quite long, and it allows the band to set all the elements up of its martial and heavy atmosphere before letting vocals appear to feed the most suffocating and sometimes unhealthy sounds again. The tortured riffs become more jerky towards the end before giving way to Smutecni pruvod and its epic but dark tones, which welcome clean sounds and even dissonance to complete the frantic rhythmic. Vocals are also more plaintive, almost melancholic, perfectly fitting with the name of the song (« a funeral procession ») while keeping this aggressive and fast basis. Ghostly leads also accompany the solid and cold riffs before being suddenly cut, letting the final drive us to Odchazeni, the last track, which starts by revealing soothing sounds before letting darkness and saturation invade us again. While leads are sometimes melodic, the rhythmic is very raw and dissonant, as are the visceral vocal parts which emerge from the icy pile of sound before it slows down to bring the airy tones from the song’s beginning back to life. But once again, saturation is never far away, and it will come to darken riffs before letting aggressiveness reign again in company of some heavy vocal interventions until a very soft final.
With their first album, Bran offers us a very raw and above all very cold sound which makes Odchazeni the perfect dark companion you’ll need to fully enjoy winter landscapes.
85/100