Brutal Death Metal - United States
The Middle Ages might’ve brought the world out of The Dark Ages. But for every compass or printing press, those enlightened thinkers were also responsible for inventing the most torturous devices in human history. None were more brutal than the brodequin. Not only did the French use this instrument to cripple their victims, but to squeeze their legs to the point where bone marrow would spill out of their wounds.
You could say the same about Brodequin.
After all, the band come with their own long and sordid history. Brothers Jamie and Mike Bailey have been playing brutal death metal since 1998. Putting his history degree to good use, Jamie’s lyrics are inspired by real historical events, staying true to death metal’s core thematic pillars of dismemberment, torture, abuse and murder. But their artwork broke from genre’s generic splatter illustrations by digging into intricate period woodcuts and beautifully grotesque oil paintings.
“There simply was no point in history that was more brutal than the medieval period,” says Jamie. “At the same time that such barbarity was deployed, there was also an explosion in fine art, architecture and music. It all comes to feed our identity as a band”.
Brodequin’s first album catapulted them far beyond their kingdom of Knoxville. “This band has stuck out in the underground with relentless, barbaric intensity”, says Dying Fetus’ vocalist and guitarist John Gallagher, who named Instruments of Torture one of the most brutal death metal albums ever. Festival of Death put another flesh-tearing arrow in their quiver (“Some of the fastest, most brutalizing death metal ever recorded” – Sputnik Music). But after sieging festival stages across Europe with Methods of Execution, the band had to be put on ice.
“We had a series of deaths in our family”, Jamie explains. “Mike and I knew we had to step away until we had the time and were at a place mentally to give Brodequin the attention it deserved.”
Now, after 20 years of peaceful silence, Brodequin have returned with fresh instruments of torture. The Brothers Bailey are back with a new drummer, a new label and their long-awaited fourth album.
“Brodequin had been away for so long that I was stunned by the level of interest from fans and record labels”, Jamie says. Before playing Hellfest, the band was approached backstage by a metalhead rocking a Brodequin t-shirt who happened to work for Season of Mist. Soon enough, they were hitting it off with Michael Berberian. As they say, the rest is history.
“We all hung out for hours”, recalls Jamie. “The extraordinary level of enthusiasm shown toward our music made Season of Mist the obvious choice”.
As has been the case with this band for their entire career, Harbinger of Woe lives up to its name. Lead single “Of Pillars and Trees” is classic Brodequin. Mike’s distorted guitar chords churn like limbs through a meat grinder. Brennan Shackelford pings, blasts and flays his snare through “Suffocation in Ash” with the all encompassing speed of a sandstorm. Jamie’s growls are so phlegmy, so rotted, that to drag them out from whatever dark bowel movement spawned them would make an executioner sick to their stomach. And yet — somewhere deep inside all that carnage hides a terrifying beauty. The title track leaves you deaf, dumb and blind, begging on your knees in the face of a punishing, almighty riff.
“This album is a journey into this lost period of history where brutality and beauty coexist. Beauty, in the arts the were created, but also the beautiful brutality that was needed to engineer deadly devices like the brodequin”.
With Harbinger of Woe, Brodequin reclaim their throne as the most brutal band in all of death metal.
For a band that’s so closely associated with The Dark Ages, Brodequin sure carried the torch for underground metal during the early 2000s. Brothers Jamie and Mike Bailey carved their names into the rusty annals of death metal lore on just the brute strength of their debut. But after feasting amidst a festival of death, gluttons for punishment were left spinning in agony when the band disappeared without a bloody trace.
Brodequin know their history. As with the rest of the band’s brutal discography, their new album, Harbinger of Woe was inspired by medieval times. But while its first two singles wielded fresh instruments of torture, the title track cracks into the psychology of a trained killer.
After 20 years of relative silence, last month, Brodequin returned with the announcement of their long-awaited fourth album. Today, the Brothers Bailey and their punishing new drummer are releasing the second torturous single off Harbinger of Woe.
Brodequin come with a long and sordid history. Jamie and Mike Bailey have been banging people’s heads together since 1998. Their first album catapulted the brothers far beyond their kingdom of Knoxville, Tennessee. But after seizing the throne as one of the most brutal rulers in all of metal, the band disappeared into the shadows.
Brutal death metal outfit BRODEQUIN will be reissuing all three of its full-length records on LP and CD format via Season of Mist! The trilogy of ‘Instruments of Torture’ (2000), ‘Festival of Death’ (2001), and ‘Methods of Execution’ (2004) is a cohesive collection of the relentless, neck breaking brutality that define the Tennessean’s vicious sound. All three albums will be released on May 26, 2023 and can now be pre-ordered here: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/BrodequinReisssues
