For a band that’s so closely associated with The Dark Ages, Brodequin sure carried the torch for underground metal during the early 2000s. Brothers Jamie and Mike Bailey carved their names into the rusty annals of death metal lore on just the brute strength of their debut. But after feasting amidst a festival of death, gluttons for punishment were left spinning in agony when the band disappeared without a bloody trace.
Now, at long last, aural masochists don’t have to wait and bleed for more merciless methods of execution. The Bailey brothers are back with a new drummer and the first new Brodequin album in 20 years.
Harbinger of Woe comes out this Friday, March 22. But you can receive its full beating today by submitting to Season of Mist’s YouTube channel.
Stream Harbinger of Woe: https://youtu.be/nU1_sdMzDWY
Pre-order:https://shop.season-of-mist.com/list/brodequin-harbinger-of-woe
Pre-save:https://orcd.co/harbingerofwoepresave
Harbinger of Woe is classic Brodequin. The opening song pauses for a beat or two just to relish the cries from its captive audience. Otherwise, the album never relents in bludgeoning you with brutal death metal. There is nothing gentle about “The Fall of the Leaf”, which whips by harsh enough to tear flesh from bone.
Like all of Brodequin’s harrowed discography, Harbinger of Woe finds inspiration in the most torturous inventions known to man. “Suffocation in Ash” leads us inside an ancient Persian torture chamber, where new drummer Brennan Shackelford mercilessly buries the sorriest of sinners under a fine hail of blast beats and pinging cymbals.
But Brodequin brandish fresh instruments of torture on Harbinger of Woe. The vocals are still as dank and guttural as a dungeon, but Jamie mixes in ghostly screams that fade like blood splatter. And while Mike’s palm-muted riffs still churn like severed limbs through a meat grinder, lead single “Of Pillars and Trees” branches out into tendrils of reverb that slowly tighten like a noose.
As torturous as it sounds, Harbinger of Woe isn’t inhumane. With a breakdown that drops with the decisive force of a guillotine, the title track cracks open the tormented psychology of a clinically trained executioner. “He is despised and rejected / feared by most members of society”, Jamie gurgles as if bound and gagged by his own microphone.
“This album is a journey into a lost period of history where brutality and beauty coexist”, he says. “Beauty, in the arts that were created, but also the beautiful brutality that was needed to engineer deadly devices like the brodequin”.
Look away if you must, but amongst true sickos, Harbinger of Woe is bound to be regarded as a truly vile work of art.
Early praise for Harbinger of Woe
” Like the sonic version of some chemical weapon banned by international law…it’s non-stop, it’s unrelenting, and it’s brutal as fuck – Metal Sucks
“Absolutely crushing…equal parts driving death metal and slamming brutality” – Metal Injection
“Raw and guttural as ever” – Decibel
“Without a doubt, this is easily Brodequin’s best album to date, and quite possibly the best brutal death metal album you will hear all year” – Metal Epidemic
“Fans have an expectation of what they will get from this band and it’s safe to say that this record is a kick right in the face” – The Razors Edge
After signing with Season of Mist in 2022, Brodequin re-issued their entire discography on LP and CD.
“Relentless, barbaric intensity” – John Gallagher (Dying Fetus), who named Instruments of Torture one of the most brutal albums ever.
“Kicks in like a sledgehammer” – Metal Rage raved over Methods of Execution
“A merciless massacre” – Power Metal praised Festival of Death.
Order: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/BrodequinReisssues
Stream:
https://orcd.co/brodequin-methods
https://orcd.co/brodequin-festival
https://orcd.co/brodequin-torture
The Middle Ages might’ve brought the world out of The Dark Ages. But for every compass or printing press, those enlightened thinkers were also responsible for inventing the most torturous devices in human history. None were more brutal than the brodequin. Not only did the French use this instrument to cripple their victims, but to squeeze their legs to the point where bone marrow would spill out of their wounds.
You could say the same about Brodequin. The band come with their own long and sordid history. Brothers Jamie and Mike Bailey have been playing brutal death metal since 1998. Putting his history degree to good use, Jamie’s lyrics are inspired by real historical events, staying true to death metal’s core thematic pillars of dismemberment, torture, abuse and murder. But their artwork broke from genre’s generic splatter illustrations by digging into intricate period woodcuts and beautifully grotesque oil paintings.
“There simply was no point in history that was more brutal than the medieval period,” says Jamie. “At the same time that such barbarity was deployed, there was also an explosion in fine art, architecture and music. It all comes to feed our identity as a band”.
Brodequin’s first album catapulted them far beyond their kingdom of Knoxville. “This band has stuck out in the underground with relentless, barbaric intensity”, says Dying Fetus’ vocalist and guitarist John Gallagher, who named Instruments of Torture one of the most brutal death metal albums ever. Festival of Death put another flesh-tearing arrow in their quiver (“Some of the fastest, most brutalizing death metal ever recorded” – Sputnik Music). But after sieging festival stages across Europe with Methods of Execution, the band had to be put on ice.
“We had a series of deaths in our family”, Jamie explains. “Mike and I knew we had to step away until we had the time and were at a place mentally to give Brodequin the attention it deserved.”
Now, after 20 years of peaceful silence, Brodequin have returned with fresh instruments of torture. The Brothers Bailey are back with a new drummer, a new label and their long-awaited fourth album.
“Brodequin had been away for so long that I was stunned by the level of interest from fans and record labels”, Jamie says. “Before playing Hellfest, the band was approached backstage by a metalhead rocking a Brodequin t-shirt who happened to work for Season of Mist. Soon enough, they were hitting it off with Michael Berberian. The rest, as they say, is history.
“We all hung out for hours”, recalls Jamie. “The extraordinary level of enthusiasm shown toward our music made Season of Mist the obvious choice”.
As has been the case with this band for their entire career, Harbinger of Woe lives up to its name. Lead single “Of Pillars and Trees” is classic Brodequin. Mike’s distorted guitar chords churn like limbs through a meat grinder. The way Brennan Shackelford pings, blasts and flays his snare through “Suffocation in Ash” with the all encompassing speed of a sandstorm. Jamie’s growls are so phlegmy, so rotted, that to drag them out from whatever dark bowel movement spawned them would make an executioner sick to their stomach. And yet — somewhere deep inside all that carnage hides a terrifying beauty. The title track leaves you deaf, dumb and blind, begging on your knees in the face of a punishing, almighty riff.
“This album is a journey into this lost period of history where brutality and beauty coexist. Beauty, in the arts the were created, but also the beautiful brutality that was needed to engineer deadly devices like the brodequin”.
With Harbinger of Woe, Brodequin reclaim their throne as the most brutal band in all of death metal.
Line up:
Jamie Bailey: Bass/Vocals
Mike Bailey: Guitar
Brennan Shackelford: Drums
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