For those of you who know of Brown Jenkins, you know what to expect, and you either already love or hate the band. For those of you who have no idea who or what I'm talking about, read on.
Brown Jenkins is a one-man "drone black metal band" from the state of Texas. As of the present time the group is deceased. However, Jenkins was kind enough to grace our ears with an EP and two full-length albums. Each one has been a building block upon the other, all the way up the final album which you are reading about today, Death Obsession. And it most certainly is something to obsess about. This little beauty clocks in at over an hour and will leave you mesmerized.
Musically, the album is very dark and hypnotic, and mostly guitar-driven. If you've heard Brown Jenkins before, yes, I have to say there is still that fuzzy sound that tends to overshadow the bass and drums, but it has been toned down a bit so the instruments can be heard a bit more clearly. The bass still flows along very well with the guitars, and the drums are even audible this time (but still shrouded by everything else). It's all repetitive though; generally you can listen for the first 30 seconds, fast forward four minutes, and you'll still hear the same riffs. This distortion and repetitive sound seems to be a trademark for most one-man black metal bands, from Xasthur to Leviathan to Dodsferd.
The pace of the music is a bit faster than Brown Jenkins' previous work; you may consider this a good or bad thing depending how you like your rhythms. The vocals are as demonic and distorted as ever; no one can understand what he's saying. It just sounds like long, ghastly roars like a beast that has been long due to be fed. For some strange reason, this adds to the hypnotic quality of the music. They are sparsely used, so lovers and haters of this vocal style will either be grateful or just hunger for more.
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