Serial Butcher – Brute Force Lobotomy (Unique Leader, 2015)

I damn near passed on checking out Serial Butcher.  On the surface, everything about the band’s second album Brute Force Lobotomy, from the title to the cover art, screams run-of-the-mill brutal death metal. But if there’s one thing that listening to metal for all these years has taught me, it’s that the old cliche about not judging a book by its cover is usually true, and such is the case with Serial Butcher. Indeed, the Belgians play brutal death metal, but their sound is anything but ordinary.

You see, unlike so many of their peers, Serial Butcher actually give a damn about their craft.  I don’t generally consider brutal death metal to be a genre that concerns itself with things like catchiness, melody and songs you can actually tell apart, but the quartet takes care throughout Brute Force Lobotomy to make each track memorable and distinctive from the next.  The band’s dynamic songwriting approach coupled with top-notch musicianship and a crystal clear production scheme equal a listening experience that far exceeds expectations.

All the hallmarks of brutal death metal are present and accounted for on Brute Force Lobotomy; there are chugs, pinch harmonics and toilet vox aplenty, but Serial Butcher add some unexpected elements here and there to spice up their attack.  The melodic soloing on the title track, the atmospheric, black metal-influenced guitar patterns that pepper “Hypovolemic Shock” and “Facialized by a Flame Thrower” and the clean arpeggios that open “Fresh Frozen Females” are just a few of the instances in which the band demonstrates a knack for thinking well outside the BDM box.

Of course, these creative flourishes wouldn’t mean much without solid riffs to prop them up, and the riffing throughout Brute Force Lobotomy is nothing short of exemplary.  Guitarist Kenneth Keysers puts on a clinic throughout the album’s forty-one minutes, whether laying down a thick, palm-muted groove, slicing his way through the mix with some nasty-ass tremolo picking or chugging it up for a bone-crushing breakdown. The rhythm section comprised of bassist Koen Van Goethem and drummer Nico Veroeven provide Keysers with a cruelly precise musical foundation to build upon, lending a already ridiculously heavy album even more heft in the process.

Overall, Brute Force Lobotomy is easily one of the best brutal death metal albums to come along in ages, not to mention the most compelling thing Unique Leader has put its name to since re-releasing Abominable Putridity’s slamtacular The Anomalies of Artificial Origin.  Rife as it is with memorable riffage and thoughtful , nuanced songwriting, this just might be the perfect brutal death metal album to play for folks who think they don’t like brutal death metal.

http://uniqueleader.com/