The Day Everything Became Nothing - Brutal   

The title says it all

Most of the membership list of The Day Everything Became Nothing reads like a who’s who of the Melbourne grind scene - fronted by Tony Forde (Blood Duster/The Kill), guitarists Dean Engert and David Hill (Fuck…I’m Dead and one half of the No Escape Records team), bassist/vocalist Xavier Irvine (Fuck…I’m Dead) and drummer Martin Evans. This would have cut down on airfares nicely for their recent North American tour with Fuck…I’m Dead, culminating in an appearance for both bands at the Maryland Deathfest alongside fellow Melbournites and 24 carat c**nts Blood Duster.

Brutal? My oath it is. Mixed and mastered by Jason P.C. of Blood Duster fame (or is that shame?) they sport heavy ass, almost ‘slow motion’ early Carcass like riffing, pace that switches from fast to sludge and armed with vocals summoned from the bowels of the earth (plus the occasional higher scream/yell). The material doesn’t sway far from the guttural and explicitly chug-driven riffage that those who are aware of The Day Everything Became Nothing’s earlier works would expect, though I’m assured by those ‘in the know’ that Brutal is a more focused beast than earlier offerings.

The artwork is striking by taking the no-frills option of being completely white aside from their extremely creative and utterly indecipherable logo in grey on the front. Inside however we find a central band photo that is one of the most inventive I’ve seen for a while, achieved with great camera work and lighting. With no song titles, opting rather for chronologically numbered track titles i.e. 1, 2, 3 etc (which screams ‘fuck names, let’s grind’), The Day Everything Became Nothing let the tracks speak for themselves.

Kicking off with 1 (of course) the thick guitar and bass mix is immediately noticeable and the ideal tone for the onslaught that is Brutal. Sludge-heavy riffing and a sweet ‘chug-down’ (fuck the term ‘breakdown’, that’s been raped and we need a new one for grind!). 2 is a heavy affair with some interesting beat timing at the beginning and introduces the higher pitched vocal over blasting beats to great effect. The longest track (by 2 seconds) 3 gets reeeallly sludgy and guttural followed by 4 that gets a little pit friendly and mixes up the high/low vocals before dropping another slew of chug-downs (I coined it, I’m gonna abuse use it!).

The ‘heavy-as-a-week’s-worth-of-elephant-shit’ riffing continues on 5 with 6 opting for a new outlook. The higher pitched vocals are backed by the gurgling this time and it’s a welcome change. 7 is a more grind based track with some more interesting drum timing changes that you wouldn’t find on other straight up grind albums. 8 kicks off with a chug riff that truly kills, deviates into some familiar territory and strays off into blasts but always returns to the heavy riff backbone. 9 ‘grind rocks’ along with plenty of chug and grind between rock outs. 10 delivers the knock out head-butt with more of those famous ‘chug downs’ that all the cool kids are now talking about.

Ideal for fans of truly heavy, grinding metal that doesn’t rely on a drummer that no one can keep up with anyway. Brutal!

(No Escape Records)

Added: July 18th 2008
Reviewer: Mark Lennard
Score:
Related Link: MySpace Website
Hits: 625