Self-Released : 2008 / 2009
Format : CDr

I will review these two demos together because I don’t see much point in reviewing these two rather similar releases separately… I’d basically just write the same stuff twice. So, what we have here are the 2008 and 2009 demos of an up-and-coming hybrid Metal band from Mikkeli, Finland, my former hometown. Over there, the band have been making the rounds and gained a steady fanbase that stretches over genre-boundaries and you’ll see the rather stylish BRHG-shirts on rappers, punks, metalheads and perfectly normal people in all age groups. No big wonder, because not only are the members of BRHG, as the name is usually abbreviated, familiar from other (mainly dead and gone) local bands, but it seems they’ve really put an effort into promoting the band. And of course, in a small town like Mikkeli, everyone knows everyone, so everyone knows the band… and seems to support ‘em.

Musically, this is some sort of a hybrid form of modern extreme Metal: the basic ingredient is melodic, thrashing Death Metal, but you can also hear pure Thrash, typical Heavy Metal, maybe even the occasional ever so slight nod to Black Metal of the not-so-harsh kind, a bit of Gothenburg, and yeah, even a bit, but just a tiny bit of Metalcore. And the groove in the music is unmistakable, leading me to suspect BRHG have certainly listened to their Pantera. In other words, a goddamned mix of just about every direction of Metal since 1980 or something like that.

I wouldn’t blame you if you thought BRHG is shit after that description. Most bands to whom such a description is applicable are shit, I will give you that. However, where many such bands are heavy on the ‘core part of it and the rest is just an unfocused mass of shit without direction or purpose, BRHG base their music very solidly on melodic thrashing Death Metal which is not so far removed from the style more than one Swedish band explored in the early nineties. The other elements are so prominent that I wouldn’t even dream of calling BRHG a pure-blooded Death Metal band, but building on a foundation of thrashing Death Metal and keeping it focused on that, the other ingredients in the music fit well into the whole (yes, even the ‘core), and it works. The main problem with BRHG’s music is a slight lack of character; they sound tight, focused and determined, their songs are well-honed with just the right amounts of melodic and crushing riffs, there’s a degree of variation in their music, and the growling vocals are passable, but overall, it feels like though the band are tight and know their shit, they’ve yet to develop that sound, style and feel that’d be uniquely BRHG. But when you consider that we’re talking about a demo-level band here, I think you can forgive that: there are certainly far worse bands who’ve been signed, and when that personal ‘trademark’ touch is all that BRHG lack, I think it’s safe to say that as far as unsigned bands go, they’re up there with the best of them at the moment.

Websites : brhg.net | myspace.com/bloodredhourglass