However, I've been that way for most of my life. I can get into a lot of music but there are also a lot of little things that can push me away. Probably the biggest thing I'm picky with is vocals and this is where the album at hand comes in.
Although Bridge Burner definitely carve out their own style from this template, the genre staples are here: drums front and centre providing both hard hitting grooves and blasts in equal measures, often changing on a dime, dissonant riffs conjuring a menacing atmosphere etc.
Null Apostle's first track "The Blood Easily Follows" serves as both a good introduction and effectively a 4-and-a-half minute build up towards the full on aggression of "The Blood Never Lies". From there on I could use a lot of clichés like "Bridge Burner keep the pedal to the metal" or "The band never lets up" but instead I'll just say this:
This is the kind of album dark, overwhelming and dense death metal needed.
No, fuck that.
This is THE album dark, overwhelming and dense death metal needed.
When it comes to extreme music I've always felt like the first couple of listens are about finding those small moments that you latch onto that keep you coming back for more. For example, when I first heard The Dillinger Escape Plan, arguably my favorite band of all time, it was the calm middle part of "The Running Board" that got me hooked, despite kind of hating the band's sound on first listen. Then I found more and more parts interspersed throughout Calculating Infinity that kept the album on my mind constantly and this has since been my go-to parable about getting into music.
On Null Apostle I immediately found my first moment in the guest vocals on "Cultfathers" but I soon found that each song had a little moment or two that kept me coming back; whether that's vocals (the guest vocals in "Keelhauler", the intense almost SDBM-esque vocals on "Illness and Loathing"), the instrumentation (the first intense and spastic blasting section (and the riff that goes along with it) in "The Blood Never Lies", the slow, broody build up of "Howling Beneath The Earth") or any other number of great memorable parts combining the two.
Even then, Bridge Burner have managed to make this album one of the more diverse entries into a genre which, while exciting and refreshing at first, has become full of bands that haven't quite mastered the art of dynamics enough to keep a full length album interesting.
New Zealand has provided us with some gems in recent years, including last year's should-have-been-on-my-year-end-list Tetris by Hollywoodfun Downstairs but also the aforementioned Ulcerate, so no one should be surprised to get another notch to add to that belt but I would be very surprised if Null Apostle does not get Bridge Burner on the map in a big way.