Having never been a Lovecraft fan, I was originally unaware that Brown Jenkins was named after a spirit in the short story "The Dreams in the Witch House", and I allowed my distaste for the band name to severely color my willingness to explore the project's work—despite the fact that I had read many positive accounts of both of Brown Jenkins' first two proper releases for Moribund Records. I can be a narrowminded asshole about these things, I admit (though I can't exactly explain it), but I finally realized that I simply needed to get over it. This overdue concession was helped along by the fact that Brown Jenkins' lone member, Umesh Amtey, was also the key visionary behind somewhat comparable (though instrumental) Texan act Starshine prior to branching off into this more developed direction, and I was always quite intrigued by Starshine's work. Much like Starshine, the material on "Angel Eyes" is "black metal" in general texture and atmosphere, but also more than that, so... still not exactly black metal, if that makes sense. Vocals (which are deeper and more doom/death oriented than the types of scathing screams more linked to these styles) certainly take a backseat within these seven tracks and 40 minutes of largely instrumental washes of cold, dissonantly winding, occasionally abstracted riffs and gritty, rugged textures over subdued, simplistic drumbeats. But it seems, at least to me, that this is precisely the type of eerie, spiraling, midpaced instrumentation that Umesh excels at—and similarly structured and melodically inclined passages creep into place throughout the album. There is no tremolo picking. There are no blast beats. The feeling and character of the guitar riffs is the focus, which carries the listen surprisingly well. In fact, the entire album passes by surprisingly quickly all things considered, and I'm still not entirely sure why!? But this is what it's all about: The music, the feeling, and emotion.
Brown Jenkins "Pale Conqueror"
God seek through blood release beneath the surface we hear the pulse of life you cannot deny us death forever funerals fate fails like your love black becomes white killing you birth becomes death your world inverted forever funerals killing god inside you.
Curious parties (of which there should be many) can download both Starshine and Brown Jenkins demo material from archive.org. Very cool.
Comments
Yeah, man, this guy has one of the most original artistic voices in metal today. The influences are obvious, but the way they come out of the speakers is instantly identifiable. Very atmospheric, very genuine. I’m a big fan.
6.9.2008 | By Invisible Oranges
I was a big fan of Dagonite, and this is great as well.
6.9.2008 | By Carlzilla
In all the reviews I’ve read of this and the previous album, nobody has mentioned that the Lovecraft character is called “Brown Jenkin” singular, not Jenkins.
Not sure if it was intentional or not because I think the real name is kind of better.
6.12.2008 | By Tobias
Hey whats with all these bands borrowing words from Lovecraft. Theres other writers in the world you know. How about taking a few words from Tolkein? Just for variety’s sake.
6.12.2008 | By Marcus Garvey
man, Brown Jenkins is a damn shitty name for a band. the songs sound pretty good, though.
6.12.2008 | By Anonymous
there is a lot of bands who took names and “material” from Tolkien. Also Lovecraft horror stories suppose to be one of the best.
6.13.2008 | By Carlos
Thanks for the kind words and comments, and for the review. I appreciate it.
To address the “s” added to Jenkin: I didn’t want to get sued. I’ve talked about this in interviews before. As for the people who can’t “handle” the name, my next band is going to be called either Darkthrone or Black Funeral. Maybe I’ll call it “Generic Black Metal Band Name”. I’ll just recycle the same old riffs too, so no one gets upset. ;)
As far as taking cues from Lovecraft, I love Lovecraft. I also love Tolkien. As popular as we often think Lovecraft is, I’ve had to explain the name of this band to everyone. This was a surprise to me…I thought it would be obvious. That shows you how much I know. Perhaps…not as many people have read him as we’ve been led to believe? I’ve noticed that they still wear the Miskatonic U t-shirts, though.
My next band will feature nothing but references to Joseph Conrand and Graham Greene. I’ll still call it “Darkthrone”, though. I hope that’s okay.
6.13.2008 | By UA
carlos, marcus garvey was joking about the tolkien thing.
ua, call your next band darkthrones with an “s” - it’ll be brilliant!
6.13.2008 | By Son of Marcus Garvey
I don’t know if it’d be brilliant (what is, anymore?), but it would certainly make a point.
I think I’ll call it Guy In White Paint With Pointy Sword.
6.13.2008 | By UA
I’ll be looking forward to the debut album from “Guy In White Paint With Pointy Sword”. Maybe we can do a split release with my band, “Goatforest Personhater”, it’ll be rad.
On a more serious note, does the Lovecraft estate really make that big of a deal out of people using reference to his work? He was very open and encouraging about other people working within the realm of his “cthulhu mythos”, so I’m just a little bit surprised by the statement. I’ve got a bleak ambient project, “R’lyeh Liberation Front” and have had zero problems…granted it’s mostly cd-r releases and such.
6.13.2008 | By Carlzilla
There is already a band called Darkthrone…
6.13.2008 | By Marcus Garvey
“There is already a band called Darkthrone…”
no shit. :) That WAS a joke :))
6.14.2008 | By Anonymous
RE: Carlzilla
Honestly, I don’t know. There is a lot of bad blood and weird aggression in the underground Lovecraft scholarship world. I didn’t want to take any chances. I have about $3 to fund a legal team.
There is also already at least one band with the name “Brown Jenkin”, unfortunately. I didn’t want to be Brown Jenkin (Texas) or something. ;) Well, it’s not really much of a point anyway as Jenkins will be done by this winter…then I can move onto new stuff. I’m looking forward to that.
6.15.2008 | By UA
Oh, I also wanted to say that I watched the Masters of Horror version of “The Dreams in the Witch House” the other day, finally. Oscar for the best scene of a half-rat familiar gnawing through someone’s body? ;) It was interesting how much they changed the story…I was wondering how they would condense it to 55 minutes or whatever. I would love to do a 2 hour black and white version of the story…if anyone has $10 million free, let me know.
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Masters_of_Horror_Stuart_Gordon_Dreams_in_the_Witch_House/70045695?mqso=80013267
6.15.2008 | By UA
UA: I didn’t actually know that there was that much going on with the Lovecraft mythos behind the scenes.
I write for a new metal mag, Beardhammer, our first issue should be out in August, anyway I was curious if you would be interested in talking about things during a short interview or something. You can hit me up at failure(at)myself.com
6.15.2008 | By Carlzilla
This album was a grower for me. I saw the hype in Decibel and some other publications and picked it up. I wasn’t feeling it at first, but once I got into it… I got it. Definitely a work of black metal art, and it’s the uniqueness of the guitar arrangements and vocals that keep me coming back to it.
7.18.2008 | By Hallowed Butchery