Review by Sonny for Brume - Rooster (2017)

Brume's first EP Donkey, released in 2015, was much lauded by fans of female-fronted doom metal, so this follow-up, the band's debut full-length release was much anticipated. Thankfully Rooster built on that early promise and didn't disappoint the fan base the band had built up during the intervening two years.

The album gets right down to business and opener Grit and Pearls is a ten-minute track that begins with some slow and heavy riffing overlaid by Susan McMullan's strong, yet light, vocal touch, increasing in tempo as it builds to a climax and setting a high standard for the rest of the album. It continues in similar vein for most of it's runtime, inviting the accusation of a lack of variety, I suppose, although someone who would make such a complaint is probably not much of a fan of doom metal anyway!

The album does hit a softer patch towards the end of Call the Serpent's Bluff which then runs into the acoustic ballad Welter that sounds more like Tori Amos or Patti Smith than Pallbearer and is a nice, airy interlude to relieve the crushing weight of the music up to that point. This, in turn, leads into closing epic, Tradewind, the album's longest track, which also begins gently before once more dropping the doom.

This is overall an an album of strong riffing, a powerful and well-defined rhythm section and nicely contrasting female vocals. There's no heavy metal histrionics, there isn't even much of a solo until Tradewinds and the album exhibits a satisfying discipline in it's songwriting, being absolutely a straight-up doom metal record and is completely free of any "witchy" occult referencing psychedelic touches that is so common amongst female-fronted doom acts. One for the fans of "true doom metal".