I picked-up a copy of Brain Drill’s new album Quantum Catastrophe this week. I guess it’s been awhile since I’ve heard their stuff, because I forgot how impressive they are with their brutally spastic arrangements. It’s like 4 dudes got together and wanted to write the most insane death metal album you could think of. It almost makes the last Cannibal Corpse album sound like Slayer. Well, maybe I wouldn’t go that far, but you kind of wouldn’t expect anything less from a death metal band called Brain Drill.

Before I get into the album review, check out the video they have for Beyond Bludgeoned real quick:

I love how all these incredibly talented death metal bands that come from Santa Cruz shoot their videos on these beautiful green landscapes. For starters, when I see awesome landscapes and windmills next to the ocean I start getting all introspective and philosophical, I don’t think of Death Metal. But obviously people from the Central Coast get a different feeling. It’s like, (brutal voice) Fuuuuuckkkk windmillls and grassssss! The other thing is, filmmakers need to start putting in credits at the end of their videos so people know where to take their significant others on picnics.

“Hey Honey, happy anniversary! This is where Brain Drill filmed their last video for Beyond Bludgeoned. Ohh, can you pass the potato salad, please?”

Alright, back to the album.

The theme pretty much unfolds as an end of the world type scenario (I think). The album starts off with a track called Obliteration Untold , which features some people screaming in horror and then a fade-in to some lightning fast bass fretboard tapping, blast beats, guitar and growls. The album pretty much goes like this for 7 more tracks. After the 3rd or 4th song I’m pretty exhausted – I can’t imagine how the guys in Brain Drill feel after playing this album in it’s entirety.

You could argue that the technicality is both the appeal and the turn-off to this album. On one hand you might sit back and say, “Jesus Christ that is incredibly fast.” On the other hand, sometimes it’s nice to get in those grinding riffs between all the craziness to just give listeners a chance to rock out (Dying Fetus is good at this). You get some of that in the track Awaiting Imminent Destruction, but I could’ve used a bit more riffage to help reduce the size of the tumor developing in my frontal lobe.

For all of the “out-of-controlness” going on, the sound engineering on this album is actually quite good. For comparison’s sake, better sounding even than Dying Fetus and certainly better than Nile (speaking of which, what the hell is up with Nile’s guitar sound?). However, by the time you get to the last track, Quantum Castrophe, you’ve basically forgotten about the mix and are focused on trying to find your way back to land.

As a musician I’m sure it’s very fun. Bass players love learning Brain Drill because they’re pretty much playing along with (or ahead of) the guitar – that includes along with all of Dylan Ruskin’s crazy tapping and solos. As a listener it can get a bit over the top, but maybe I just haven’t “woken up” to this level of extremeness yet. Perhaps one day I’ll follow the rabbit down the hole, but until then I’ll continue to admire from a distance.

Overall score – 83/100 (which also happens to be this album’s time signature).