Review by Karl Magi
Overall Album Impressions
Droidglow’s “Brutal Hours" simmers with dark violence, seething power and immense sounds, occasionally broken by gentle emotion and remembrance. The music can crush with unbelievable muscle and invoke the most nightmarish beings, but it can also touch softly and carry wistful feelings. The balance of elements is well-considered, The melodies are composed with thought and Droidglow understands how to create a sonic painting. When the contributions of the guest artists are factored in, this work delivers both brutality and musical depth.
There's no doubt that colossal, devastating sound sits at the heart of “Brutal Hours." The music is thunderous and laden with fear as it batters and shreds. The percussion is unrelenting and the guitars tear through the music with ravening force. As the elements interlock, they create gargantuan strength and unstoppable fury. However, there are also more subtle and tender moments to balance the ferocity.
All of the themes composed by Droidglow for “Brutal Hours" are written with care and skill to summon maelstroms of emotion and peril that sweep across the different tracks. Each theme reflects varying moods and conveys the menace that lurks within. The way in which he also balances the guitars and synthesizers adds to the weight and sense of portent that spill from the music.
Imagery is invoked by layering synthesizer sounds and making them all combined seamlessly to form a picture of deadly threat and increasing horror. Droidglow has a knack for drawing me into his music and filling me with the menace and sinister strength that defines each part of the album. This is a journey into the blackness of the void and it doesn't disappoint in that regard.
Finally I have to call to attention all of the artists with whom the main artist collaborated on this album. Each of them is talented in their own right hand when they bring their forces together on this recording, the result is explosive and extremely entertaining.
My Favourite Tracks Analyzed
“Legacy of Terror” explodes into life with unrelenting darkness and a sense of impending doom before the leaping foundation rockets fiercely as the notes above cry out with barely restrained fear.
A high synth spills blinding light that balances the slashing underlayer before a melody captures majesty and risk in equal measure as the guitar cuts cleanly. The guitar melody is speedy and fierce, ripping at the music with hungry fangs while the low end accelerates.
A note pattern spins with disturbing feelings, like something waiting to strike in the shadows, while the bass and percussion hits hard. The synth gleams with a deadly beauty as it carries the melody with surprising softness and delicately fades as breezy notes drift.
I enjoy the contradictory sensations that fill me as the heavy underlayer punches me in the gut and almost reverent notes rise. The guitar howls like a spirit drifting through the murk before the track ends.
A churning pipe organ sets the stage for “Hellbound” as clouds of gloom flow and the hammering rhythm creates a fierce foundation for the type organ as the melody howls and the vocals raise the drama level. Shaun Phillips’ voice storms and Philip Smith’s guitar rips at the music while the underpinnings smash.
The guitar raises a feeling of shattering threat, sliding out in a fearsome line as the percussion is given emphasis by the pipe organ's gothic force. I am captured by Shaun Phillips’ driven performance while the massive beat gives no quarter. Philip Smith’s guitar solo tumbles with feral freedom while the background surges with the pipe organ and silence falls.
Asking for a demonic power to enslave him, the tale’s teller says, “destiny, die for me, swimming in my grave.” He speaks of there being pride to destroy and souls to possess as he is "dancing in the fire."
Once more our narrator implores the evil force to "devour me, empower me, throw me on the pyre." He adds that it's hell for them and they're hellbound. He's ready to make a sacrifice and pay the cost as evil advances quickly.
In conclusion, the storyteller says, "angel eyes, satanize, bow before the master. "
“Darknet” bubbles like magma while the drums create solidity and great weight as a voice chants and robotic lines as industrial sounds buzz and howl. The underlayer tumbles and churns formidably as the main theme cries out and the ragged low end thunders with perilous heft.
The theme is muscular and full of brilliant energy as it unfurls. The track drifts into a segment in which a synth fulminates and the background vibrates with orchestral sensations, gliding with more elegance than the mechanical feeling underlying it.
Synth and drums interlock into an accelerative, headlong charge before the smashing percussion breaks in along with the dire bassline and a rising sound twists, evoking worried feelings before leaping to a conclusion on robotized tones.
A tide of smoothly interlocking tones slides above a solidly pulsating rhythm starts “Together We Will Survive” while the lead singer’s magnetic vocals capture a struggle for positive forward progress, communicating complex emotion.
The main theme gleams on a synth awash in sunset shades while the words slip in a resonant line, poetic and gentle, as the underpinnings push on. Tones echo with peaceful radiance while the foundation undulates and the lead singer's sincere performance touches me. Patterned brilliance spills before Droidglow’s guitar solo embodies the mingled pain and hope that defines the song.
As one event follows another, the main character is still doing work on himself. He says, "time just takes its toll when I feel like I've lost control." He's looking to find anything that will take weight off his mind and allow him to see the light again. He wonders if the song’s subject can save him again.
Picking up where he left off, our narrator says, "I'm thinking I can still hold on, tonight will be the night, together we will survive." He knows that if they stay together they'll make it. He concludes, "I'm still catching up on life and I keep losing track of time, it's passing me by, in the blink of an eye we're gone."
Tones that crush together with unsettled roughness lock into “Danse Macabre” which shudders in anticipation before computerized, swirling arpeggios flicker like tiny lights swallowed by vast twilight. Widely spinning arpeggios joined echoing, choral voices as a militaristic snare drum marches and angular sounds tug at the edges of the music.
A guitar cries and the twinkling arpeggios are supported by an orchestral string section that creates an image of approaching eldritch beings. Fragile notes increase the impressions of unfathomable wickedness that draws near. A wider arpeggiation is joined by the ancient choir as the track crescendos into destructive motion and the orchestra intertwines.
Slowly descending tones induce dread while the bending notes shift and the delicate tones shimmer above the eerie foundation. Despair slides through while the percussion fades briefly. patterning drums March and the track ends with horrible menace.
“Find An Excuse” has unhallowed beginnings with an undead choir echoing through caverns before the gargantuan drum beat is lacerated by sobbing notes as distorted vocals bend into open space. Jagged slivers of harsh sound slash while the slamming underlayer pushes on with ferocious insistence.
A synth with a floating quality creates unsettling, ghostly sounds that drift while the seething underpinnings and slamming metallic noises accelerate to a towering rhythm. Impressions of strength beyond this world roar while the heavy beats crash. Unadulterated panic grasps me as the industrial sounds clatter and a choir calls out in haunting tones.
Mechanical, unbelievably weighty tones move with the chanted vocals as the bubbling sounds are joined by a shattering beat as spectral breaths exhale. Madly churning percussion collides as the hi-hat adds a ringing counterpoint and pipe-like sounds float with diaphanous sensations before the track ends.
The tsunami of percussion and a banshee cry of guitar kicks off “Sacred Transgressions” As a violent storm rages in the foundation while the entire track exudes horrifying muscle and arpeggios tremble nervously. The guitar has a dominating, ghastly energy to it that is propelled by towering rhythms, growling with colossal impressions of forceful hunger.
Higher notes swirl with a hint of melancholy while the guitar cuts like a razor sharp blade, driving into me violently as the underpinnings smash with crushing horror as turning sounds tumble one over the other and the track roars to an end with a guitar solo full of dreadful life.
“Neon Nights” slips with lithe sounds that expand into a huge soundscape with a melody driven by mournful notes and tinges of glistening hope before Sarah Orloff's voice fills the soundstage with blazing emotion, something between pain and potential that remains. Both singers bring their voices together in harmony that deepens the sensitivity and earnestness within the lyrics.
Underneath, the rhythm pounds with giant power and the vocals float, Sarah Orloff propelling all of the feeling directly into my veins before the twirling arpeggios raise the energy level. Sarah Orloff and Rafael Jannotti's voices complement one another with depth and expressive nuance before the heavy underpinnings press forward. The main theme is propelled by a guitar that captures unadulterated, intense emotion before the song stops.
Wanting to keep the dream alive, the protagonist says, "let's do it one more time, the lightning in our eyes won't dissipate." She doesn't want to be woken up because she's like a cloud "floating in an idealistic place." She wants to live a moment in the light as she’s "holding on to magic nights."
Despite the grid being down, our narrator says they shouldn't fade away but again live for a moment in the light, keeping hold of neon nights. She speaks of not surrendering without a fight as she sees "hearts on fire" and feels the desire. She adds, "the thunder in my mind won't go away" as she speaks about flying in an artificial space.
Like a shower of stars, pinpoints of synth descend above an electronically snapping low end as “Profane Covenant” rises with increasing sensations of dread and anticipation of ghoulish horrors erupting out of the night.
The foundation breaks into a thousand lacerating shards as elevated, brilliant tones capture sheer anxiety, filling me with foreboding. The beat is carried on massively explosive hollow drums as a minor-key figure wriggles and the track accelerates even more wildly. As the fragments of drums and shredding bass collapse and vibrate, the track works its way to a conclusion.
Conclusion
Terror, havoc and massive walls of sound define “Brutal Hours" but it's more than just that. There are layers of emotion and expression that sit within the heaviness and moments that are gentle and full of contemplation. The end result is music that I fall into and travel with from beginning to end.
