Flamebearer – Brazen

 

 

Flamebearer – Brazen
Self-released – 2024
Rock, Metal, Doom, Stoner, Hard, NWOBHM
Rated: ****

As we inch closer to the deadline for YOUR lists for the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2024. Namely, before Saturday December 14th, 8.00 CET. We decided to deep dive into that folder full of albums we desperately had wanted to mention this year. We wrote about something like 250 albums and EP’s this year. But in that folder, there are still some 400 more that we had wanted to bring into your peripheral vision. And we are saddened that we will never get to that… But well, besides trying to keep up with all the new ones coming out, we’re now trying to bring into the spotlight one from every month passed that we unfortunately did not mention during the month they were released.

After January, February and March the past three days, we’ve been listening to all those April releases we never got around to mentioning. And we know we should have! Flamebearer’s Brazen album for instance. Back in 2023 they graced us with their awesome Taste Hell single and we knew we would be in for a good heavy metal time once their album would be released. Classic and traditional in many sense, the nine tracks operate distinctly in the metal universe. But then every so often you get a flash of more hardrock oriented or stonerrock love. Often direct in approach the songs aim for the jugular, they grip you and do not beat around the bush. Opener Seed Is Sown immediately being the perfect example, for it hits the ground running and keeps going for only three minutes. Classic metal vocal melodies are sung with balled fists or spit with venom. A minor guitar flourish before the breakdown and then back to the sprinting part as the vocals turn into intense screams. And many of the vocals that follow across the album are filled with drama or refrains that beg to be sung along by many throats in the audience. And everything is done and completed with so little time and so much efficiency, it's insane. Longest track six minute long Holy Rose is an actual ballad, strolling power rock that implores metal influences from all eras passed. This entire album oozes knowledge, talent and confidence. Perhaps logical when you consider the members earned their spurs in bands like 1968, Decomposed, Oak, Mourn, Blood Island Raiders, Brule and Mocho Diablo. Indeed, Flamebearer are allowed to be this bold!

(Written by JK)

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