BRILLIANT COLDNESS : POISONED REALITY
Apollon Records
Brilliant Coldness hail from the Ukraine, and perpetrate brutal, technical death metal exclusively. “Poisoned Reality” is their most recent material, and the album with which they have joined the Apollon/Painkiller roster, but a squint through their biography will reveal that the tracks are fairly old, having first found life in 2006. A few line-up changes and bunch of live experience have no doubt improved them since then, so if this album grabs you, be sure to check in with the band at the next opportunity.
Really there’s no reason why any fan of extreme metal wouldn’t like this release; tight, pummelling, battering, spiralling guitars create a wall of inescapable violence, characterised by technically competent musicianship and shedloads of aggressive enthusiasm, it’s clever and visceral in equal measures. Brilliant Coldness seem to delight in using the full range of their sound, giving a lot of space to bassist Mor, whether that be through evil breaks (as on “Return to Unbeingness”) or just as a vital underpinning to a martial onslaught (as on impressive closer “Cannibal Rules”). There are cascades of merciless blasting, as one would expect from a band that frequently toes the grindcore line, and a fearless approach to soloing that results in incendiary licks intertwining with the most crushing of movements to fairly mental effect.
The tracks rely on regular switches and surprising moves to maintain interest, and the fact that they’re largely successful, despite some very long durations, is testament to Brilliant Coldness’s imaginative reach. “In Power of Horror” contains a massive amount of meandering adventure within its guitar lines, whilst “Paradox of Madness”, after a weirdly excellent electro-classical beginning, is powerfully insistent in its technicality, and closes with an awesome welter of riffs. Although the lyrical content is, as the band admit, a step up from their earliest blasphemous days, incorporating more thoughtful reflections, it’s not exactly transcendental, but that’s no problem – it’s delivered steadily if unspectacularly by Mor, and certainly doesn’t take anything away from this earnest album.
In all, the most overwhelming aspect of “Poisoned Reality” is its sheer quality; song-writing and performance both have clearly received a lot of care and attention, and the band have taken pride in the final product. That it’s actually a little behind the times now is very intriguing – I can’t help but wonder what sort of compositions Brilliant Coldness have progressed to.
82/100
ELLEN SIMPSON
