Album Review: Brume – Rooster (DHU Records/Doom Stew Records)

Rooster is all about bringing the heaviest of heavy doom riffs to the table. Six tracks of heaving metal that burrows its way into your subconscious. The debut album was released on CD, cassette and digitally April 20th 2017 via Doom Stew Records. The 2xLP will be available in a variety of limited edition variants via DHU Records on July 14th 2017.

It’s quite a nice surprise to hear female vocals throughout this throbbing & psychedelic record. Not often heard within the doom genre it instantly marks Brume out as something a bit different. Sitting in the background, they contrast well with the doomy riffs & but the focus remains on the crushing heaviness.

Opening with Grit & Pearls, stoner/doom fans will feel instantly comforted by the bleak sound that the song offers. Deep & dark riffing with a side of swampy rhythm, its pure filth to listen too.

Harold gets even deeper, buzzing around your skull with a trippy edge to the guitars. It’s made more listenable thanks to the vocals before Reckon lightens the load a little. A few more flashes of up-tempo swagger & groove brings about the best track so far.

Unfortunately things take a bit of turn with the forgettable & uninteresting, Call the Serpent’s Bluff. It only really picks up in the last few minutes as the vocals add some real emotional layers. It’s a great ending but is it particularly exciting? Not really. Especially in a song that’s nearly 10 minutes long.

The penultimate track, Welter puts short focus on the vocals again. Softly sung with just acoustic guitar strumming to accompany it. Susie M. can sing, her emotive style makes Rooster something extremely different but when she lets rip, it’s often the best moments. This is the case on the final track, Tradewind. Initially starting off a little flat, when the doom comes in & she ups her game it gets the hair standing up on the back of your neck.

It’s a fantastic finale to an album that has plenty of unique moments & doesn’t really put a foot wrong. The moments that are lacking are highlighted because of the quality they’re surrounded with.

Brume – Rooster Full Track Listing:

1. Grit & Pearls
2. Harold
3. Reckon
4. Call the Serpent’s Bluff
5. Welter
6. Tradewind

You can pick up the album as well as find out much more about Brume over on their official website here. You can also give it a listen through Apple Music below. Check Brume out over on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & YouTube.