Brodequin is back in action.
Following their reformation in 2015 and the release of two new songs, the American band formed in 1998 signs with Season of Mist: Underground Activists. In 2024, brothers Jamie (bass/vocals) and Mike Bailey (guitar), accompanied by Brennan Shackelford (drums, ex-Cesspool of Corruption) – all three members of Liturgy – unveil Harbinger of Woe, the band’s fourth album.
The musicians are accompanied by Joaquin Chavez (Embodied Torment) on guitar for their live shows.
The band strikes hard from the very first track, Diabolical Edict, where blast and straightforward riffs meet the usual torture samples, complemented by wild cavernous screams. There’s not a moment’s respite under this hurricane of unbridled violence, whether with the bloody harmonics or the final crushing parts followed by Fall Of The Leaf, a slightly shorter but just as devastating track where the three musicians keep their Old School approach and continue with raw moshparts. Theresiana offers a mysterious introduction, but is joined in a flash by pure violence, which nonetheless lets it haunt its massive, uncompromising patterns, integrating an ominous dimension, while Of Pillars and Trees exposes us without any precautions to vivid, abrasive brutality. Even when it slows down, the track remains suffocating, transforming this short, soaring passage into a veritable torture session completed by the vocal parts before returning to its initial violence. This is followed by Tenaillement, a track already presented a few years ago, which in turn will molest us as it should, placing a few harrowing leads to accompany its greasy rhythm. It’s followed by Maleficium, which combines all the most violent elements of the band’s influences while revealing a few dissonant parts, perfectly fitting in the onslaught before the short VII Nails once again proves its worth, pouring out all its rage for just over two minutes. The band doesn’t slow down the pace with Vredens Dag, a composition whose title (in Danish, I grant you) perfectly conveys the apocalyptic atmosphere slaughtering us, while including a haunting guitar in the background, before Suffocation in Ash once again grabs us by the throat while veiling its strength in our faces. Strident screams in the background and airy harmonics reinforce the barbarity of the rhythm, which continues with Harbinger of Woe, the eponymous track, which sweeps us away with the same ease as the previous titles, bringing an end to this half-hour of unbridled cruelty, which even rages when the few bloodthirsty samples arrive.
As if it’d never left, Brodequin returns to the throne of savagery that no one has ever really been able to fight for. Their previous albums have already received a great deal of praise from the Death Metal scene, and it’s only a matter of time before Harbinger of Woe gets theirs.
95/100