ROBOTS AND EMPIRE
Omnivore
(Trip Machine)

NYIA/ANTIGAMA
Split
(SelfMadeGod)

BROWN JENKINS
Dagonite
(Moribund)

SLOTH
A Whole Other World of Fun
(At War With False Noise)

CAN KICKERS
Live at Lavazone
(Fistolo)

LOOM
Angler 

(Exigent)

HATER
The 2nd

(Burn Burn Burn)

MORE REVIEWS

I know there is a guitar on the cover and apparently the axeman here, besides playing a chord, may be flipping us off, but the dense, thick and ultra electric sound of Dagonite is so intense and distorted we could rightfully ask the question of whether guitars are even a part of Brown Jenkins.  At some point all these meshes into electricity and all the string instruments involved transform their sound into a noise blanket; loaded with static and captivating enough volts to power Tijuana during Cinco de Mayo.  But if electricity ever signified evil, Brown Jenkins is it. Yes, despite all the electricity and the light that comes with its power, Dagonite is a dark work about dark things that move at snail pace. Actually, some of it is so dense, it’s a miracle it even goes places and moves forward. It is black metal because of its Satanic aura, and because the band tags itself a black metal combo, but it shares genes with the most distorted material of shoegaze gods like Jesus and Mary Chains, even if these fellas have never heard of the Glasgow gods.

Dagonite is loud; I know it because my ears are damn near bursting point. The first cut “Blessed” has such a doom-like pace yet totally vicious sound I am beginning to wonder how is it that all these polar opposites end up resolving to such a gorgeous clusterfuck of sound. Like many of today’s most challenging and bold black metal bands Brown Jenkins (who take the name from the half rat/half human character from Lovecraft’s The Dreams in the Witch House) is a one man band; with the artist in question handling all instruments. Like most of one man Satanic bands, what we get in Dagonite is pretty low in musicianship and high in volume and sensory attack. So it’s all about conjuring the right atmosphere; simplistic riffs are splashed and smeared while organic sounding but robotic drum beats give Brown Jenkins an even eerier sound. The vocals are absent for most of the tracks; but in high worshipping fashion they growl and retort in all its cavernous depth. Dagonite is massive work, but it’s also so entrenched in its core aesthetics that it can easily become too much to the untrained.

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