Rating: 7.1

Country: USA

Release Date: 2005

Record Label: Unmatched Brutality Records

Track list:
1. Slaves to the Pyre [mp3]
2. The Gridiron
3. The Red Theatre
4. Pressing to Plead
5. Tyburn Fields
6. Durance Vile
7. Lingering Existence
8. Cast Into Torment
9. Verdrinken
10. Punishment Without Mercy
11. Methods of Execution

Band Website: Brodequin

Brodequin - Methods of Execution

Jaime Bailey - Vocals/Bass
Michael Bailey - Guitars
Jon Engman - Drums

Liturgy was a project orignally by Matti Way and Jaime Bailey from their other previous band Cinerary, but when that project became kaput, they needed a drummer and guitarist. Basically Liturgy IS Brodequin with an extra member that wears a backwards baseball cap. Besides looking for a drummer, Liturgy is the reason why it took so long to have a new Brodequin album. Writing material for that and trying to not make it sound like the initial band you're in must've been annoying since it's the same style. The biggest difference between the two are basically the splattered vocals of Matti all over the recording and Jaime's inhaled vortex.

I was promised that this was not gonna have Liturgy's 'Dawn of Ash' production. Jaime promised me this. But this sounds like Liturgy...even musically. The big musical difference is that Liturgy tends to have more staccato riffs, but that influence did seep in to this release (ie track 6 "Durance Vile"). Jon Engman had a lot of influence to the band, I think he's the reason why they have this production, the same place that Foetopsy's recorded (Asylum Studios), plus the ambient/noise tracks (which are also found in the Liturgy and Foetopsy albums). I'm not saying that he's a bad thing, actually, Engman's performance here is phenomenal! If you can believe it, he's faster than their previous drummer Chad Walls and he's a minimal drummer too.

I can't stress enough how much I was let down at first when I heard this in my cd player. I'll admit, I'm a Brodequin fan-boy and one of my favorite album is ‘Festivals of Death', because of its sheer intensity and relentless brutality that doesn't let up, it rapes your family, community, and basically assimilates your culture like what Japan did when they had a shopping spree in China back in the days of WWII. And when I heard ‘Prelude to Execution' EP, I noticed that the production is a less muddier and the guitars a cleaner but still raw and this time the snare doesn't dominate, a big change but still acceptable. Compared to ‘Festivals...' this sounds thin and doesn't have the mudslide guitars but this time you can hear the kicks clearly. If you don't have a good stereo system or headphones, you won't enjoy it as much since this time the guitars are a wee bit louder than everything else and the snare is buried underneath the barrage of buzzing riffs. If you have a decent system turn the bass a little up you can hear the drums more.

For most people who heard the previous album, 70% hated it because of the annoyingly loud snare. I grew to love it, maybe that's why I love the new Last Days of Humanity EP. Its so stupid fast that the drummer has to have a spoiler in his back and when he blasts, he blazes your face on fire and leaves it there as you're reduced to mere ashes, it just doesn't let up. In this album I need a good stereo to hear it so I can thrash around my room. It's funny that the snare here is pretty low in the mix, since the snare on Foetopsy's was high on the mix, I was expecting a ‘Festivals...' part deux. If only they had the same mix as they had on ‘Prelude...', things would be all fine and dandy. I have a feeling that ‘Methods...' was rushed since ‘Prelude...' had a way better mix. Or if they probably recorded at the same place (Digital Sky Studios) where they did their previous material but a little more wiser, things would have been much better. ‘Instruments of Torture' was probably the best production/mix they ever had. With repeated listens (and forcing myself to hear the goddamn snare) I've gotten over the production problem, I can listen to this album over and over again, just like Suffocation's ‘Breeding the Spawn', you have to over come it and realize that there's more than that (even though I've mostly babbled about the production in this review).

You'll notice that they saved a lot of $ by going to that Asylum studio by the lay out of the cd, it isn't monochromatic anymore and it's more than a 2 page lay outand that CD also includes a "Slaves to the Pyre" video...yes, a video. I was so excited to see it, instead of showing medieval tortures images, it's the stereotypical death metal video (but it's not black and white) which means its just them jamming in a basement, hella super duper cheap - salvation army style. Apparently instead of using cloth as drapes, they used black garbage bags...The video has a rapid fire editing (almost epileptic inducing) that switches from each member to member. You can see how nuts Jon Engman is in the video. Speaking of influences, I just noticed that the video opens and ends with Jon ...hmm interesting. Hey at least, this is an actual video, not another ‘live' video.

Musically, there's really nothing new but faster songs with a more staccato riffs here and there instead of the full on chord tremelo picking assault. My other complaint is that the title track is a little too long (though very haunting and atmospherically evil), instead of ending the album in a powerful note, it's an ambient track of overlapping historians commenting about medieval tortures that you can barely decipher, though in the end of it, you can hear instruments fade in tricking you that it might be an actual Brodequin song, instead it just fades off. I would give this 8.5 just because I'm a dumb fan-boy, but I have to be unbiased and truthful about it. Though this may read as a negative review (which I really hope not), I sincerely and wholesomely enjoy this release, this is so brutal it hurts. If you already heard Brodequin you know what to expect. I've argued many countless times about Brodequin Vs. Devourment, I always take Brodequin's side as who is much brutal. Both are great to listen to when you need dumb out and to punch a solid concrete walls, but both are different animals, one chugs, the other, well think about it this way, Cryptopsy has that new song title “The Frantic Pace of Dying", that fully describes Brodequin.

Now if they can only go to a better studio...

December 14th, 2005