Brume – Rooster (Review)

Brume are a doom band from the US and this is their debut album.

Worshipping the purity of The Riff, yet with enough psychedelic depth to fashion a very well-rounded and nuanced release, Rooster is a top quality listen from start to finish.

Love the cover too. Nice.

Oh, I like this, I like this a lot. Rooster is both atmospheric and heavy. Brume manage to take their doom metal core and lavish luscious melodies and mood-building atmosphere onto it as if they’ve been doing it all of their lives. They then add to all of this with their own distinct personality, crafting material that has both style and depth.

Heavy riffs that by themselves would be enough to engage with the listener are enhanced and enriched by leads that seem to tug at the heartstrings more than doom metal probably should. As you can probably tell, Brume deal with emotion well, channelling and working with it in highly effective ways across the album’s length.

This is true of the vocals as well as the music. As soon as you hear the singer’s voice for the first time, you’re captivated. She has a strong voice that’s equally at home working at full power as it is delivering softer croons and sensual melodies.

The songs are laid-back, heavy, and full of emotive feeling. Whether they’re creating thick atmospheres or peeling off heavy riffs, (or both), the band’s sense of compositional judgement seems to always strike the right note.

Rooster contains over 50 minutes of transcendental atmospheric doom metal. Notable for having abundant memorable riffs and a hefty bite to its guitars, while still being able to have deeper feeling and nuance; the band essentially have their cake and eat it, bringing the best of both worlds together in a glorious merging of doom’s strongest traits.

Bloody Hell! Brume may have just released the best doom metal album of the year.