Review: Glowing Brain - Brain Dust

Label: The Ghost is clear Records

For most bands of the last two decades this whole style of blending genres like Punk and Metal, was just that... a style. These guys would probably turn to red in no time, if you'd ask them to list five different Metal-albums of the 80s. 

GLOWING BRAIN out of Oakland, California, are a different kind of breed. They seem to love many different types of guitar-based music, from old Rock'n'Roll to Stoner, from HC/Punk to 80s-Metal, from Garage-Rock to Noise-Rock. And you can hear that in their music. There's a lot MOTÖRHEAD-worshipping going on, with this charateristic riffing and the stomping rhythms. But don't bother, if you're not that into MOTÖRHEAD (I'm neither), cause this is far away from a rip-off. GLOWING BRAIN incorporate these elements into their own vision and they do it in a clever kind of way.

"Brain Dust" reminds me as much of MOTÖRHEAD as it does of STRANGELIGHT's 2020-album "Adult Themes". Coincidentally they also hail from Oakland. In some parts GLOWING BRAIN are quite alike, with their straight-forward Garage-Rock-sound that is being married to some noise-y leanings. Also, HOT SNAKES are not too far away, when it comes to references. The biggest difference to those bands is the implementation of aformentioned pure Rock'n'Roll-, Stoner- and Metal-elements as well as GLOWING BRAIN's tendency to longer songs. Though the trio doesn't overdo it with songs that are stretched over the 3-minutes-mark. Then again, the longest song, the Stoner-ish, monotonous and slightly epic "Everyone higher than everyone else", clocking in at 6 minutes runtime, is the center-piece of the album and definitely one of the album's highlights. 

Quite surprisingly (coming from Punkrock) I do enjoy the lengthy songs. "Hourly//Sourly" is another shining example, as a song that mixes things up a bit with the tension, that is being build near the end. "Finite Supply" coming right after, is the counterpart to that. It's a straight punk stomper, that appears as fast as it disappears. I recognized that I especially like it, when GLOWING BRAIN rally against their own formula. Some of the other tracks keep blending together on the surface, while they still differentiate in all the details.

GLOWING BRAIN have their own idea of melting various sounds to create something coherent in the end and on top of that the album-production is really good. I do enjoy the trios' attitude and more than appreciate their skills (I mean, there's really A LOT going on here), but I get the feeling, that they have some room to grow, especially in terms of songwriting they could mix it up more often. That being said, "Brain Dust" is a rock-solid full-length-debut for GLOWING BRAIN and I'd like to recommended it to any Punk-listener with a heart for Rock & Metal.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Glowing Brain on Bandcamp
Glowing Brain on Facebook
Glowing Brain on Instagram