Friday, December 4, 2009

Birushanah - Akai Yami


Birushanah is quite an original experimental doom/sludge group from Japan and "Akai Yami" is their debut and currently sole full-length. While only three tracks are on this release, with the first one being a mere two-minute intro of sorts, the material altogether adds up to be a bit over 40 minutes. I suppose that's not exactly shocking when taking in consideration the average length of tracks throughout this genre, but what will come to be a pleasant surprise is the truly profound avant-garde nature of the these epics. From the start, the listener is greeted with traditional Japanese scales and folky sounds with a relatively dark twist, complimented with strange vocals reminiscent of something you'd hear via Mike Patton's Ipecac label (the bizarre vocals of fellow Japanese band Ruins comes to mind). However, so much can be said for only the first seven minutes of this release, as the beauty at this point is absolutely decimated by brutally heavy and crushing riffage. All the while, the drumming and metal percussion pummels the brain, often times retaining the traditional Japanese influence, and the vocalist quite simply goes fucking nuts. These dense sounds dominate the rest of the album, but Birushanah continuously reminds the listener that they're not your average sludge.

1. Jyodo
2. Akai Yami
3. Kairal

Download (61.58 MB)