The banner of Jutland, staked in a meadow, riddled with cow shit and psychedelic shrooms, appears on the cover of Danish doom-duo BRODER's newest cassette, Under den Jydske Fane. Unlike the first release, this is a full collaboration between brothers Erik and Jesper Bagger Hviid. As stated by the artist, "We grew up in the countryside, on the right side of the stream, between the burial mound, "Bitch Hill", and the mythical "Gallow Mountain".
The opening track, Kællingehøj, is the calm burial hum from a time long forgotten. Galgebjerg is the brutal gut ripping truth at the end of the noose. This cassette is not just an ode to the hill and the mountain, but an ode to historicity as a part of being.
This is really all I know of this new act, shrouded in the mystery of the dark Danish countryside. A few tracks and this piece of information. BRODER is in the vein and style of early drone/doom-metal acts. Think Earth 2 by well.. Earth! As well as Sleep. Also prevalent are minor elements of Dungeon Synth.
The first track, Kællinghøj, has a grim kind of dark medieval, plaque-ridden, witches-and-heretics-on-the-bonfire apocalyptic kind of atmosphere. Like being in a burned down ruin of a village, while smelling the decay in the soil beneath. There is no hope at the end of this tunnel.
The next track, Galgebjerg, has a hammering and punishing sort of heaviness. The kind of which you can only imagine when pleading for your life, and having someone, say a terrifying executioner with a black hood, holding a big sledge hammer over your fuckin' head!
Under den Jydske Fane is out now on Copenhagen-based label It Was Gnarled. This is an excellent release that fans of funeral doom and drone/noise-metal should definitely check out. For more information please visit Facebook and Soundcloud.
-Per Najbjerg Odderskov
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