Goliath Bird Eater – Brahmans [Nurse Etiquette]

Hot off the heels of the doomy/baffling Mrtyu tape comes Bobb Bruno’s Goliath Bird Eater with 30 minutes of heavy, metal, heavy metal. Or maybe some other kind of metal or maybe not metal at all; I was never good with that whole metal classification system and figuring out which phylum Morbid Angel belongs in (does it matter?). Anyhow, I can tell you from experience this shit is H-E-A-V-Y. GBE, to my knowledge, haven’t released too many things so far. They had the Blood Venus CD and a split tape with Robedoor on Not Not Fun and some tracks on various compilations, but Brahmans is, I think, their only release so far this year (but a 12” on Trashskull is in the works). But enough discog gobblygook, let’s get to the music.
There is no demarcation on either side of the tape, so when I first listened to it I listened to the b-side first cause it was wound for some reason. I got it all straight now though. “Lanzarse” takes up Side-A. It takes a moment to get going, beginning with some synthiness and a spacey guitar figure before the bonecrushingness begins to set in. It sounds like an intergalactic trudge through hell. There is a constant propulsion to the track, but it doesn’t feel so much like it’s being pushed by the drums or guitar but instead like it’s being slowly pulled by a tractor beam or into a black hole. I’m not sure how Bobb achieved this effect, cause I haven't heard it anywhere before and it’s pretty spectacular at that. After that bit of heavy weightlessness, everything drops out to near silence, only to let another phoenix rise from the ashes. The track builds somewhat unstably, which again is an odd effect, until it reaches an actually really pretty arpeggio while a weird tape loop lurks in the shadows. The side ends somewhat abruptly, but whatcha gon’ do? It’s an awesome, awesome side nonetheless.
While the first side was Bobb solo, he’s joined by Corey Fogel on drums for the title track on the back side. This one begins slow with rustling, distorted loops circling round and round. The repetitive distorto-drones is offset by some relaxed drum solo-type moves. Then things start coming together until they take off completely. The sound goes from murky to sharp pretty much instantly when things start picking up, a really nice production touch. There is kind of an ebb and flow that results where the duo forge ahead into the feedback dirge and, subsequently, plunge back into the wall of noise only to reemerge again. Part of me wishes they would just throw caution to the wind and riff my brain to dust, but I can respect the restraint exhibited. Sustain is much more menacing than pounding rhythms sometimes, at least in my experience.
So, overall Brahmans is quite a tape, both sides are great but I really like “Lanzarse”’s cosmic but still batholithic aesthetic and that it pretty much takes you on a journey through space and time. Nurse Etiquette put this tape out, and did a classy job. Glossy j-card and all. I’m sad to say I don’t know the label but I’ll keep an eye out from now on. Brahmans was released in addition of 66, and according the Nurse Etiquette website every single thing they have is sold out, which unfortunately includes Brahmans too.
I think a few distros might still have copies, though, so I’d run a quick google search before you weep.