The Browning should not work. It shouldn’t! They take a Metalcore Mentality combined with ’90’s video game scores and a Death Metal brutality to make the most unhinged yet satisfying version of Techno Organic Cyber Metal yet. And on their newest full-length, OMNI, they’ve refined that sound for easily the most solid release of The Browning’s career to date.
If you’ve ever been a casual fan of Jonny McBee’s brand aural anarchy then this is the one that’ll make you down the Kool-Aid without a second thought. “WAKE UP” is both a warning and a rallying cry that takes place in just over a minute of concentrated chaos before “HIVEMIND” begins and somehow manages to up the intensity factor even more. McBee sounds as vicious as ever with Hardcore Keem’s shreds just crushing at every turn. Between this one and “FED UP” which follows, we imagine that this is what it might sound like if classic Fear Factory and Strapping Young Lad ever teamed up as a proper supergroup and made music in the here and now (And not that half and half lineup during the Mechanize era).
“MISERY.exe” features Nik Nocturnal and is an epic pummeling of gargantuan proportions complete with a Mega breakdown and easily the catchiest chorus on all of OMNI. Speaking of the album title, “OMNI” the song brings THE DEFECT (Formerly DEATH X DESTINY) to the party and is hands down one of our most favorite songs of the year. It’s the kind of track that would guarantee a spot on our year end just on the strength of this one song that takes one of our favorite made-up term Brutiful (“Brutiful”= Brutal and Beautiful) and amplifies the hell out of it thanks in part to the guest vocals from THE DEFECTS’s Moon McBee who brings a certain amount of levity with her hypnotic, heavenly, and harmonious delivery running in counterpoint to Jonny McBee’s bestial turn at the mic.
“Deceiver” is a malevolent Metal maelstrom with elements of Dub Step thrown into the mix along with German spoken word passages that add a sinister element to an already devilish diatribe while “Apollo” is the kind of song that the word “Epic” was made for with an event horizon of a synthetic intro before sweeping McBee screams and Keem riffage just floods over all. “Poison” is a big, bad shredder highlighting the addition of Hardcore Keem to the regular lineup of The Browning as an electronic explosion breaks apart the middle and then “Come to Grips with Death and the End” is a somber, haunting segue into the monstrous “Soul Drift” which combines thematic elements from the previous track for a subdued finish that’s no less ominous and intense as the rest of what came before.
OMNI arrives through FiXT on November 8th and you can secure copy through all your most favorite DSP’s by heading here or in a variety of physical formats which you can find here or by clicking on the stream below. For more from The Browning, including upcoming live dates in support of OMNI like the one happening at Palladium Upstairs in Worcester with Dropout Kings, Filth, and THE DEFECT (Live “OMNI” perhaps???) on January 15th, follow the trail of socials across the interwebs by heading here, here, or here.