ALBUM REVIEW: Brick By Brick – Wall
WALL was initially formed by DESERT STORM members and twin brothers Ryan and Elliot Cole as they twiddled their thumbs during lockdown. With both members furloughed from their day jobs and stuck in the small flat they shared together, waiting to be given the all-clear to venture back to rehearsals with their main project, there was little for them to do but write music to help distract them from the boredom of being stuck at home.
Lockdown of course meant that they were unable to properly rehearse the songs that make up their debut album Brick By Brick as there were no rehearsal spaces open at the time and their small living space restricted the amount of noise they were able to make. This resulted in Ryan writing riffs on an unplugged Gibson SG while Elliot tapped out accompanying drum beats on his lap. This in itself is both surprising and impressive given the monstrous sound the duo have created on this album. Brick By Brick is an almost entirely instrumental 13 tracks, made up of songs from the band’s first two EPs with three new pieces added to really make the album even more of an event. And what an event it is.
Taking inspiration from the first six BLACK SABBATH albums, as well as the likes of HIGH ON FIRE, KARMA TO BURN and TORCHE, this is a veritable journey across a mountain range of huge doom riffs, thunderous grooves and pummelling rhythms. Opening with the wonderfully titled Wrath Of The Serpent, the Cole brothers veer between slow, droning Iommi-style riffs, CANDLEMASS-esque twin lead guitar harmonies and frantic Matt Pike-inspired grooves, all in the space of the first two minutes. As with the best instrumental music, the changes in tempo and the range of the riffs on offer here mean that you barely even notice there are no vocals, so focused and driven is the music.
Second track Sonic Mass does exactly what it says on the tin: layers of crunching, downtuned riffs, topped off with piercing, minor-key leads that stuff your ears with heaviness, all the while driven forward by Elliot’s innovative, shifting drum patterns. Despite the shifts in tempo, this is still gloriously dark and gloomy doom metal and is a million miles away from DESERT STORM in terms of both its sound and its overall vibe. Whether it’s the ominous, crawling bass intro of Obsidian, the discordant picked guitars on Legion, or the slimy slide guitars on Cirrhosis, there is plenty here to keep even the doomiest of doomheads happy.
There are softer, psychedelic touches too though, particularly on the second half of the album which again adds variety and longevity to these songs. The crushing Avalanche, for example, contains a spacey middle-eight section where the instruments allow more space for the music to breathe, before reconvening for a haunting, almost NEUROSIS-like closing passage. The groovy riffs on Masking My Contempt wouldn’t feel out of place on an early LED ZEPPELIN record and Falling From The Edge Of Nowhere is like a campfire song being played by a load of mescaline-fuelled desert-dwelling goths.
The two covers on the record – KARMA TO BURN’s Nineteen and BLACK SABBATH’s Electric Funeral – are the only songs to contain vocals and, while both are excellent versions that fit nicely into the overall feel of the album, these are the only parts of the album that perhaps feel a little surplus to requirements, distracting from the impact of the original material that WALL have so successfully produced.
That this is another excellent album being put out by UK underground masters APF Records is surely also another positive and yet more evidence that the UK metal scene is more fertile and exciting than ever. Far from being just a side project, with Brick By Brick WALL are announcing their arrival on the scene with a dark, riff-heavy fanfare of the absolute highest quality.
Rating: 8/10
Brick By Brick is set for release on August 30th via APF Records.
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