Big Brave - A Chaos of Flowers (2024)^{Release ID: 51410}

It's always difficult for me to review drone type albums. For one, I find them to be mostly boring as this style of music is not really known for all-encompassing songwriting or dynamic growth. The other reason has to do with a sheer lack of effort. Drone music is notorious for having some of the least talented musicians of any genre, throw on some guitar feedback and match it with a barely salvageable bass line. It's the kind of subversive behaviour in music that really makes me question whether or not my diploma was ever worth it at all.

But every once in a while, someone comes along and provides life into a lifeless genre. A Chaos of Flowers by Big|Brave is Montreal's attempts making drone metal while giving the listener a slight bit of unease. I don't know what's going on with the echo effect in the guitar here, but it gives the instrumentals just a jolt of uncomforting grit and I think that it plays off quite well with the more gothic vocal stylings of Robin Wattie. Wattie's delivery can be monotonous, but performs them with just enough power to liken them to some of Chelsea Wolfe's most powerful moments in their discography.

I think that the percussion plays a big role in providing this record with the emotion that it has. The guitars can become quite loud and almost excessive throughout the recording, so for the percussion to stay back with these deliberately slow grooves, and likely played with brush sticks is nice. Having recently come out of a technical death metal backup, I was fully expecting A Chaos of Flowers to explode into this epic doom metal breakdown at any second, and yet the percussion never allowed it to get there. It helped me appreciate the space where nothing was happening and I was further able to appreciate the sporadic moments more.

While an improvement from last years Nature Morte, in terms of atmospherics and length, the album does seem a little bit lazy during "Chanson pour mon ombre" and "A Song for Marie Part III." I can see why this might be the case, but it cuts down on the albums length tremendously and almost makes it feel like less than a completed project. But if you enjoy the gothic sounds of Chelsea Wolfe, and the unsettling environment of a Lingua Ignota record, then I recommend giving A Chaos of Flowers a chance.

Best Songs: Not Speaking of the Ways, Canon : In Canon, Moonset