Initial Impressions: Brain Drill: Quantum Catastrophe

Technical death is an odd genre. Some bands are so focused on putting together a shredathon that they fail to write a coherent song. Other bands ground their technical mastery around something that at least comes close to an actual song. Technical death metal bands are more focused on the instrumentation than the lyrics and the guitarist must be an absolute magician with the instrument to pull it off well. Unfortunately, this has lead many bands to be derided as "soulless", relying too much on technical wankery and not on putting out music that sounds good. A healthy balance is needed to be an interesting tech-death band. That balance has been achieved in the past by groups like Necrophagist, Origin, Obscura, and Prostitute Disfigurement, among others.

Brain Drill is somewhat new to the technical death metal scene, having only formed in 2005, but they were snatched up quickly by Metal Blade. They released only an EP before joining the label and put out their debut full-length in 2008. This is their sophomore release. I was not terribly familiar with them on their prior album, having only heard a few songs. But the impression I had was that their music was the dreaded S-word.

This album is definitely a step in the right direction musically as the band does manage to put together some interesting songs. There are some good, well-developed melodies in here at times, although this is often immediately lost in the frenetic guitar sweeps. Guitarist Dylan Ruskin definitely has technical chops, there is no doubt about that. It would be nice to hear him play something more melodic, but I guess it's his band (Ruskin is the only remaining original member after the other three left due to some bad touring experiences). The other instruments are just there to hold things together for the guitar.

Brain Drill has a ways to go before they can be placed in the same sentence as Origin and the other bands mentioned above. This album is a step in the right direction, but it still possesses some of the problems that crippled their prior album.