I didn’t realise Brahman were Japanese until I started to delve deepily into the band’s background in a bid to fill up this review. Apparently the quartet are big in their homeland, but then so were Shampoo. And Violent Delight. So yeah, that’s thrown that argument out of the window. Snapped up by revelation Records, this record was initially released in 2001 in the Land of the Rising Sun and so avoids any predictable ’emo’ genre bashing, principally because this CD is older than the nu-genre we so often have thrown at any band with scything guitars and shouty vocals. Truth be told, there’s more Lagwagon than Taking Back Sunday in Brahman‘s spiritually-influenced sound – too ‘hard’ to be skate-punk, too poppy to be post-hardcore. There’s nothing amazing on offer here to be honest – hence the fluffy social commentary and padding – just standard fare, produced by some Japanese chaps rather than the usual Yank nonsense.
In short bursts this is all rather pleasant – the machine-gun drumming and thudding basslines sound sweet, but as each song progresses it just begins to grate. On my first listen I found myself skipping tracks because they just tended to blend into each other. As I say, there’s nothing horrifically wrong at all – at times the band remind me, in sound at least, of Lagwagon. And that’s a good thing ladies and gents. All too often mind, Brahman fail to hit the mark. Their spiritualism is reflected in the lyrics too, although for a non-spirtualist like myself it makes little or no impression. The word ‘meh’ sums this up pretty well – it’s neither hear nor there really. Good in places, dull in others – I’d check this out if you’re a bit fed up on a rainy day.
Revelation
Paul