Now available on CD...
Man, it's been a long, long time since I've heard anything from this Bay Area band, and figured them for kaput. But no, lo and behold we've got this brand new Lp (well, not that new, this did come out several months ago, but I dragged my heels on picking it up for the shop) from Brainoil, with seven songs of furious, sludgy hardcore that shows that this trio (whose members also happen to play in Laudanum, Stormcrow and Whatch Them Die) are not only still kicking, but still hammering out some of the heaviest shit in Oakland. The opening title track drills it home: a thunderous concoction of crushing Sabbathoid grooves wrapped around mildly angular riffing, the song shifting gears multiple times as they push forward with bludgeoning down tuned thrash that slips down into that swampy, monstrous slow-motion swing and even slower passages of grinding crush. Brainoil's tar-coated heaviness has always been closely related to the blues-influenced scum-boogie of Eyehategod, Buzzoven and Weedeater, but there's more of an overt hardcore element to their music, that mucky Bay Area crust seeping into their already quite ugly racket - fans of Eyehategod side project Outlaw Order and Ohio's sludge warlords Fistula would no doubt especially dig Brainoil's sound, as all three bands share a common appetite for jarring dynamic shifts between breakneck speed and lumbering ultra-heavy dirge. When Brainoil really crank the tempo up, it's some of the best stuff on the Lp; the song "Opaque Reflections" is one of album's absolute scorchers, erupting from one of their crushing slow riffs into a tornado of ferocious D-beat drumming and blazing fast crustcore, and on "Feet Cling To The Rotting Soil", the band whips up a vicious rocking thrash assault that's got some killer riffing and a brutal metalpunk edge. Hell, the whole b-side of this thing is one ripping thrash attack after another, shot up with just the right dose of Sabbathy sludge. Raging stuff, it's good to hear something new and bruising from these guys; fans of sludgy, brutal hardcore should grab Death and try slapping it on alongside some Corrosion Of Conformity and Black Cobra for maximum vertebrae wreckage.