Bridge Burner – Null Apostle (Art as Catharsis)

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What exactly are we hearing here? The press release for Bridge Burner‘s debut full-length Null Apostle calls it blackened hardcore / grind, which is certainly a way to cram three genres into one descriptor. Even that effort doesn’t encompass the range of sounds the album subjects the listener to, as the band draws from anywhere they like in their expulsion of despair, corrosion and evil. The result is an excoriating half hour, that for all its variety of influences displays a cohesive focus and a relentless grasp of the listener’s attention.

Opening tracks The Blood Easily Follows and The Blood Never Lies flow seamlessly together, and combined they form a musical mission statement for the album to come. Easily Follows creeps into the eardrums with a howling wind and the faintest scrape of feedback, suddenly cut across by Gary Brown‘s tar-thick bassline and Cam Sinclair‘s ominous, pounding drums. Soon joined by vocalist Ben Read‘s bilous screams, the song takes it’s time to build, retreating into feedback a moment before Josh Hughes drops into the mix with a crushingly heavy guitar note. The song progresses inevitably from there, a patiently oppressive blackened doom trudge. Bridge Burner don’t allow the last notes to linger long before launching into The Blood Never Lies, a sudden grind assault that transmutes all the horror and despair of the first track into hatred and defiance. The slow, layered build is replaced with jackhammer blast beats, driving riffs and pinpoint-tight breaks and transitions.

 By no means has Bridge Burner’s reportoire of metal or punk subgenres been exhausted at this point. Keehauler mixes old-school death metal riffs in with the grind, and features superbly rage-fuelled guest vocals by Jelena Galuza (of Melbourne hardcore outfit Outright). Second single Witches Alone has the frost of second wave black metal, while lead single Cultfathers features a bitter call and response between Read and Tali Williams (local punks Human Resource and DIAL).

 Regardless of the universally dark and heavy genres they pull from throughout the album, Null Apostle always turns on those first two axis; building despair leading to explosions that never quite bring catharsis. For such a heavy and uncompromising album, the sense of pace and balance is impressive. Bridge Burner never let the listener become desensitised to the violence, or let the horror stale into ennui.

 And the performances are masterful. Read sounds disgusted and desperate, moving between deep death growls and raspy shrieks. Sinclair sound equally at home with driving metal or pounding hardcore, while Hughes can scrape out your ears at one moments and crush your intestines the next. Throughout it all that grossly thick bass binds everything like napalm. It’s a dense and complex album, but I’m going to wrap it up simply: Null Apostle is a tour de force.

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