Initial Impressions: Brown Jenkins: Death Obsession

Of all of the possible fusions of metal genres out there, blackened doom metal seems to be one of the least-explored. Next to blackened power metal of course, which I am not sure exists yet. Something to look out for. But I digress, here we have blackened doom metal band Brown Jenkins. The first thing you will probably notice is the odd name. Well, it's the name given to the small brown rat with a human face familiar in H.P. Lovecraft's The Dreams in the Witch House. Not quite so bizarre now.

Anyway, onto the music. What we have here are mostly doom riffs, but played in a black metal style. That is to say that they are higher-register riffs played with a lot of distortion, fairly similar to alternative rock bands of the 1980's. They kind of have a jangly sound to them. The bass rumbles along underneath the guitar riffs giving the proceedings a kind of spacy feel. The songs are all very slow, as could probably be expected and each one seems to build in urgency until the end when they just fade out. The riffs kind of have a droning quality, while remaining clearly metal. The music gets a little psychedelic and hypnotic at times. The vocals are delivered in a deep roar and sound as if they are coming from a malevolent force deep in a dark cave, particularly on the suffocating "Lifetaker". The whole album sounds like the soundtrack to an intense nightmare.

Brown Jenkins released this album after they had already split up. I am not sure they would have been able to match the sinister intensity of this album. I have not heard their other albums to this point, and I do not know yet whether I will. This is a fine album, but it is a little strange and from what I understand it's a bit more of a unique sound from these guys. Their other albums are not quite like this.