THE BROWNING

It was only a matter of time. THE BROWNING first emerged during deathcore's first wave with a thirst for electronics and a pleasing disregard for convention. A lot of people enjoyed what they did on albums like "Burn This World" and "Hypernova" (released in 2011 and 2013 respectively),but a mixture of snobbery and misguided purism put paid to their briefly anticipated rise to glory. Many years later, founder and frontman Johnny McBee finds himself firmly at the cutting edge. The influence of EDM and other non-traditional elements has been widespread and profound in metalcore and deathcore in recent times, and while THE BROWNING are still far too brutal for mainstream success, their impact on the current state of things is obvious and undeniable.

There has been no radical shift away from their deathcore-plus-EDM formula in the years since "Burn The World", but McBee's band have grown much more adept at creating great metal songs, as opposed to merely creating a great sound. "OMNI" is as heavy and punishing as anything in their catalogue, but it is the sharpness and accessibility of these ten bursts of digi-death that make the difference. The sheer weight behind kick drums and guitars on the opening "WAKE UP" is genuinely startling, and the lissome, machine-gun riffs that follow are dripping with adrenalin, but where most previous BROWNING records were content to focus on brutality and the novelty of rave synths, this is fiendishly catchy. Virtually everything that follows hits the same sweet spot between smashing people's faces in and lifting them up with pop-tinged melody. More overt bids to tickle mainstream fancies are uniformly sublime, with "OMNI" (feat. THE DEFECT) standing out as particularly atypical and elegant blend of post-rock prettiness and skewed, deathcore bludgeon. Similarly, "HIVEMIND" is a squealing, disco-death confection that peppers the dancefloor with riff shrapnel, before bulldozing through a series of twisted breakdowns, clattering breakbeats and squelching acid house bass. In contrast, "FED UP" is straight up catchy and vehemently to the point.

More than ever before, THE BROWNING are simply too gnarly and powerful to let the more accessible elements of their sound detract from the bone-shattering might of their core (pun intended) sound. When "OMNI" is heavy, it crushes. At its most intense, it keeps the standard for futuristic deathcore in the stratosphere. "Deceiver" is an absolute gem, and one of the band's most savage statements yet; "Poison" is dystopian deathcore with a hard drive full of gremlins. And after the serene vocal mirage of "Come To Grips With Death and the End", the closing "Soul Drift" skillfully nails the nefarious midpoint between electro-pop, absurdist industrial techno and downtempo extreme metal. Clever.

Impressively, THE BROWNING still sound like the future. It's a future that will probably end with carnivorous robots devouring our terrified, screaming faces, but "OMNI" is one hell of a soundtrack either way.