Instruments of Torture

Brodequin is an acquired taste for the death metal fan, some will get turned away from their muddy production, some don't like the vocals for some reason, but for me, this is the true essence of brutal death metal. Blast beats and brutal riffs churn through your stereo by the second, the blast beats sound so raw behind the buzzing guitars and the bass player (who is also the vocalist) sits atop the entire onslaught. The aesthetic of this album can be compared to that of a mangled, disfigured corpse thrown into a mud pile.

Where do I start with Instruments of Torture? Well, first of all, the album has that raw 1990s brutal death metal production as I explained above, which makes it sound so right and real. Keep in mind, I am reviewing this based on the vinyl version, so I am experiencing a classic like this how it should enjoyed in my opinion. The riffery sounds like a bastard child of Disgorge and Deeds of Flesh, Mike Bailey knows how to front the entire experience, where on some songs (notably "The Virgin of Nuremberg") he even seems to show off some Cannibal Corpse influence. His brother Jamie bailey gutturals and roars over his riffs sounding like a bloodthirsty beast.

The vocals seem to remind me of mid-era Devourment, but unlike Devourment, Brodequin generally hold back on constructing songs based around slam riffs but rather prepare the listener a circus of riffs to enjoy. For every verse there is a new riff, and about 8 times out of 10, that riff is insanely satisfying. Never does the band stop to play a slam, never do they recycle the same riffs in the same song. Every single song is just riff, riff, blast, blast, blast, guttural, riff repeat and it continues that way until they climax the the 25-minute runtime.

In the absence of slams, the band play groovy riffs in their place. This formula works better than one may think, grooves work with this style of death metal mainly due to the fact that interrupting the flow of how fast these songs are constructed with a slow slam riff would be a costly sacrifice rather than a rewarding break from blasting as most brutal death metal acts tend to make of their slam sections. Now I'm going to talk about the percussion; Chad Walls has a amazing snare tone, and as I've mentioned enough before in this review, he mainly works his magic as a blast beat machine. Given how real and natural this album feels in every element (especially in the drum factor) it makes listening to the drum performance a lot more worth your while than say... compared to Vomit Remnants' Supreme Entity (released a year before this album) which has some of the most corny trigger samples ever arranged on a death metal album. This album basically sticks it to Vomit Remnants in a way that goes "look, this is how to make your drums sound good on a brutal death record, suck it."

Brodequin are a couple of almighty legends of late 90s/early 2000s brutal death. They are one of the forefronts of the genre and this album is simply a rotting mangled goldmine of muddy brutality. If you like your death metal raw, guttural, fast and brutal as shit, then Instruments of Torture is your go-to album.

Metalheads often use the word “overrated”: “dude, X band is overrated”, “duh, X album is sooo overrated” and so on, and most of the times it’s used against well-known rock/metal acts that either get a lot of airplay or are quite popular between people and/or youngsters. So then, the metalhead returns happily to his or her house, knowing that he has shown to the young scene kid his superior taste and knowledge about metal music, and proceeds to take out that old, “kvlt” LP known only by the band and blasts it as if there were no tomorrow. That old, kvlt album could be, for instance, Brodequin’s debut “Instruments of Torture”. I really can’t seem to figure out what is so good about this. People praise this as if it was the be all-end all of brutal death metal and it’s nothing more than a complete fucking mess, seriously.

This album has two main problems that prevent me from listening to it. One of them is the god-awful, ninth-rate production it has. I don’t know if it was because the band had a relatively low budget and actually couldn’t afford a good studio production, or if it was made on purpose… and it’s most likely that it’s this last one, so that way it would sound more “br00tal” and “Xtreeme” and whatnot. If it only would have a decent, average sound, I probably wouldn’t mind listening to this, but no. The production here is your average 90’s American death metal band, and that means decent as far as drums and vocals are concerned and your typical overly distorted guitars, which are so high that you actually can’t even decipher what they are playing when they start playing fast. You always hear that “bzzzbzzzbzzzbzzz” that only stops when the mid-paced riffs come in, and I personally can’t listen to an album that sounds like this, where I can’t make out what the guitarist is playing, not matter how brutal or underground it is.

The other problem is the vocalist. Yes, I have problems with the vocals on this album. Jamie Bailey vocals are mostly composed of unintelligible and undecipherable “breeee, breee, breee breees” and guess what, his sings like that throughout the fucking 10 tracks on the album, never varying pitch, technique or anything, just breees for 25 minutes. The band for the most part plays really fast, and the drummer makes use of blast-beats for about three quarters of the songs’s length, which in conjuction with a vocalist that is constantly babbling on the microphone Satan knows what, makes a complete wall of sound, and not in a good way. If he would at least vary in technique or have the other guy sing with another voice it would be a whole lot better, but I guess I’m asking too much.

This is at its core, a 25 minute long song. There are actually no differences between the songs and each one of them follows the same writing pattern. Start blast-beating the fuck out of your kit with a really fast riff, change to a mid-paced one half song in, go back to the fast riff and, most of the times, they will finish with a sort of groovy riff derived from the one they used previously. Repeat 10 fucking times. I admit that I listen to stuff that could qualify under the same category and characteristics, but difference lies in that I actually enjoy that. I don’t enjoy this. If it only had an average production, I go back to the first point, I would probably don’t hate it so much, but unfortunately, I have to. So, that’s it, a song divided in ten parts. And don’t even expect the minimum sense of musicality or sonic coherence in the music included on this album.

But, underneath all of it, the band, somehow, manages to deliver some catchy and groovy riffs that are actually listenable (in both senses) and quite good. “Spinning in Agony” and “Infested with Worms” have a strong Suffocation influence and the former also has a very good riff towards the end, and so does “The Virgin of Nüremberg”. “Hollow” has another sweet, thrashy and groovy riff. The band is actually good when they slow things down, but they need to be the epitome of all things not musical and have the need to craft and play as fast and be as brutal as they can.

“Instruments of Torture” is an album that will surely please those metalheads avid of underground, cult and brutal death metal that are looking for nothing more than a heavy, heavy trip, because I don’t see any other thing this record could serve as. People that like well-produced albums and are looking for some interesting and well-crafted, slab of death metal with musical coherence, just stay away from it. Don’t get me wrong, maybe you’ll like it, but this is really hard to digest for me. Your call.

I stumbled upon this band when I was searching for bands similar to Disgorge(Ca) and Devourment more than a decade ago. The band name (which is after a torture device) and their overall concept piqued my interest and I finally decided to get their debut without even listening to any of the tracks in advance.

My initial response was 'what the hell is wrong with the production?', due to the exceedingly muddy sound. But after a few more spins, I finally managed to appreciate the raw brutality of this band. The riffs are heavily distorted and hard to make out at first, but through repeated listens one can realize that the band presents quite a unique style. While punishing speed is obviously the main factor of the band, a nice amount of groove is scattered throughout the riffs of each track and the fluid transition between speed, catchiness, and technique really shows off.

One of the integral part of this album is the drumming. While the snare seem to dominate, Chad Walls uses a lot of cymbal crashing and he uses them at the right time. The overall result creates a torturously fast, yet satisfyingly rhythmic drumming which adds more character to each track.

Jamie Bailey's vocals are absolutely inhuman while being monotonous; they sound like as if a beast is vomiting its own bowels through a ripped open throat. I actually prefer his style of vocals over those pig squeals, belches, and crickets from countless other bands.

While the production is extremely muddy, it does somewhat forms a raw and gritty atmosphere for the overall album. In terms of songwriting, the band basically uses the same formula for each track, but they keep it short and sweet and that is one of the main reasons I think highly of this album.

While not an easy album to initially digest, once you get past the production, it's one of the few albums that displays intense, sick, and unique brutal death metal with a high level of musicianship.

The legendary masters of Brutal Death Metal of what they have now become, would have never of thought of this title when they first started. You can tell by the pure rawness of the production, the downbeat recording of the drums and the distorted guitar chord lines that this has no finance whatsoever. However, this plays a big part in Brodequin's early image to legendary status. Although the band only started in 1998 in a crowded scene in America, it seems it is a surprise they have made it this far.

Their debut album was released after a couple of rare releases and one demo which puts into context of what labels do sometimes miss out on. The album starts and finishes with the same format as it continues rampaging through your very ears. Brutality! Is the word on every ones lips as this goes through the list of tracks with pure quickness and blasting infatuation.

Even though the production does not bring out the drums, as much as I would like it to, you still can hear the periodic blasts, the speed of the fills and the crashing of the occasional crash cymbal. This is the backbone for the guitar overhaul of fastened riffage and note picking excellence. Then the vocals come over this with a deep growl but still faintly hearing some of his lyrics from time to time.

However, this album is not for the faint hearted by no part of the imagination. This is brutal to the core, fast, blasting carnage which you will never forget. You will keep on playing this over and over again as the time of the album is relatively short and sweet. Nice album to get if you are just getting into these legends.

About 21 years ago my brother and I found a guy who had been murdered. His head had been mashed in with a concrete block. Coagulated blood in the humid air was becoming infested with maggots around the edges. The look on the guys face was not of misery. Instead, he seemed stunned, but dead. I remember my brother having a horror filled face at what he saw. Then after about a minute he became accustomed to what we were viewing and a look of curiosity mixed with excitement crossed his face as we pushed his body with our boots to see if he was really killed.

Hehehehe, that same look of excitement made my countenance the first time I heard Brodequin’s album Instruments of Torture. No it is not as good as Caress of Steel by Rush, it is not as awesome as something by Beethoven, and it lacks the vibe of something played by John Lee Hooker. Yet, this album is fierce and brutal, which means if your in the mood to be hit in the face with a shovel of human gore sponsored by those catholic reprobates of the Spanish Inquisition this is the record you wanna hear.

The only negative to this album is the sound production that seems low. Otherwise it sounds like a Brutal Death Metal album should. Each of the songs except two clock in at just over 2 minutes. The guitars are hard, thick and fast like a porn star banging a trailer trash beauty. Each song is characterized by a heavy chugging riff, which is accentuated by the drumming of Chad Walls. While Walls is not a break through artist his ability to pound the kit is evident. He slaps the snare that has a tin can sound with the quickness of a sharp razor across flesh, and the double bass has a deep thundering sound, which is probably enhanced by effects.

Vocally this album could be better. The Death Metal vox are deep and guttural, but they are most likely enhanced by effects. This makes the singer sound like he is singing one long word rather than a series of statements via Death vocals. Still, if reading the lyric sheet one can almost make out what he is saying. In theory it is not really mandatory to understand what the singer is saying in that each song is about torture in some form. The sheer terror and cruelty associated with the heinous atrocities Spanish Inquisition deems it near necessary that any song written and performed about that portion of history should be played via Brutal Death Metal with sick vocal tracks.

All the songs are exceptional but the best one is The Virgin of Nuremberg. It opens with a priest reciting a prayer of some ritualistic type in Latin while a man in the background screams in misery while being tortured. After about a minute of this intro the song kicks into a quick tempo that soon changes into a locomotive slab of a riff that makes the song that much more heavy. Listening to it one can just imagine some poor wretch being jerked about on the strappado.

A good reason to purchase this record for something other than for the killer music is the packaging. The album cover, disk, and sleeve below the CD itself all have detailed medieval pictures of people being tortured. Also, the disk has the lyrics, which are not the best ever written, but they are better than most of the made up garbage by other bands in this musical genre. Plus the record has been re-released with 2 bonus tracks.

Don’t burn this album like a cheap SOB. Support the band and buy the record. You will not be disappointed.