2010-02-14
I can't really name one Ukrainian metal band that made it big outside of its borders, but that country has been producing countless bands and albums, in various genres, and
Brilliant Coldness is a fine example of brutal/technical death metal, with a pretty solid second album in the form of Poisoned Reality.
Let's start with the negatives, the band's name and cover artwork are definitely no big drawing points, the name leads more to a black metal band, and the cover is quite problematic as well, not really leading anywhere. But worse is the band's logo, which wouldn't suggest a tech-death band to anyone familiar with the genre.
But if we drop all the surface items and go for the content – Poisoned Reality is quit a decent piece of brutal-technical death metal release, with good playing abilities, strong riffs, and an OK sound.
Starting off with a good bass line and some strong technical drumming, the band delivers a stripped-down version of tech-death, low, guttural death growls, Kingdom of The Dead has all the finer points of technical death without sounding too Americanized as most bands of the genre. The fact that the sound isn't too polished hurts the song a bit in the guitar section, but serves to make them sound raw and honest, and not too much of a studio product.
Not too much to elaborate beyond that, the band spews through some strong riffs, and a very good rhythm section with the bass sound being the most oblivious reference point to more brutal death, but all-in-all, no real shining point, or discernible hook, but alas – the genre does not call for one.
With some stronger guitar sound, and a stronger imagery, this band could do well in the European extreme metal scene; they have the chops for it, just need to hone their craft a bit.
Alon Miasnikov
