Review: Tromba + Brainscanner – Split
The music universe is an immense, endless maze of sounds and expressions, which no one can ever fully and completely grasp, for the benefit of every music lover around the world. The world of current stoner doom bands alone is a large galaxy with many great bands in every corner of the world, meaning there will always be new bands to discover and new sounds to explore.
On January 14th The Swamp Records released a split with two impressive guitar/drummer duos hailing from two neighboring, but very different countries of South America: Tromba from Argentina, and Brainscanner from Brazil. Each band offers a taste of their local flavor and their particular style, each sounding very distinct but matching each other’s participation here in quality and character.
The split kicks off with three Tromba songs. The first one, Antilope, launches the album with a meditative melody which invokes a dirgey groove underneath, the imagery of the song being drawn out in waves by this slow, steady riffing. Tromba traffics heavily in fuzzy guitars with a hint of surf rock sound, increasing in intensity as the songs peak, often devolving into harder psychedelic territory.
The next track, Los Grises, opens with an ear catching groove, which proves super satisfying when the song lands on a steady beat. Here, the amalgam of cleaner rock leads and solid stoner riffing works at its best, leaning into the trippiness for maximum effect. Their final song, Surf Arena Ramone, launches immediately into trippy riffs, building into a more traditional song structure that somehow never becomes uninteresting. Tromba is fun as hell instrumental music.
Brainscanner’s tracks deliver a brutal pummeling, Tromba seems to speak of parties on substances…
The second half of this six song split is up to Brainscanner, which comes in on the song Stapedious with smashing low end, and hard smacking drums. Guitar melodies can hold no candle to the preponderance of the riffing of Brainscanner. The song dynamics feel like jumping and stomping around on a planet with low gravity: It takes off, but always lands with a heavy impact.
Their next track is Framed, bringing more low gravity stomping. At this point, I wasn’t expecting vocals, much less the intervention of something like an evil priest or judge, but then again, who else could condemn you to die for a crime you didn’t commit? The song is very narrative in structure and delivers a very tasty lead break.
The final song on the split is Corman’s Lab, delivering aggression in droves, with the inclusion of growling vocals that push the band’s sound in a more groove metal direction, though still keeping a fuzzy psychedelic edge.
Overall, a very cool split. Perhaps a slightly different track order would allow each band to be appreciated differently, but while Brainscanner’s tracks deliver a brutal pummeling, Tromba seems to speak of parties on substances, so it’s fair to say theirs is the more fun side of the split.
Label: The Swamp Records
Tromba: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram
Brainscanner: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram
Scribed by: Goro Riffs
