BRAZEN TONGUE is an extreme metal project built around the duo of Ethan Gifford and Scott Skopec and supported by session musicians Keven Paradis (drums) and Frank Lato (bass). Gifford and Skopec are based in Chicago and Gothenburg, respectively, having first worked together in Chicago before Skopec’s moved to Sweden. Theirs is a center of the road Blackened Melodic Death Metal, not too much harmony nor too much grit.  

On June 7, 2024, BRAZEN TONGUE released their debut album, “Of Crackling Embers and Sorrows Drowned.” First, awesome band name. Second, awesome album title that could also be an awesome band name. Musically, I can’t say they break any new ground with this album. There is nothing significantly distinctive about the compositions individually, but the album as a whole is a good listening experience—explorative, intelligent, well-executed. The Melodic aspect makes it inherently easy to listen to; the Blackened Death assures you that you are indeed listening to extreme metal; and the lyrics spin an interesting narrative that is both close to home and distantly cosmic. In sum, the lyrics are more inventive than the actual music, but they do complement one another quite nicely and work to elevate the entire piece.

Best tracks are “Last Train from Myrdal” for its varied movements building from melancholic lullaby to yearning cascade to angry march; “The Recidivist” for its Prog signatures; and “Beneath the Broken Trees” for its locomotive intensity. It isn’t lost on me that this trio of songs occur sequentially—tracks four, five, and six—as if album as one large composition unfolds its most intense acts as it progresses deeper into the narrative just before resolving in the final track, “The Maddening Symmetries.” 

The production values are good. Nothing extraordinary, but certainly on par for melodic sensibilities. The cover art is conceptually intriguing—a corpse breathing out flaming butterflies whose burning ashes are floating away into the void—but not so well executed. But then again maybe AI artwork has us spoiled with its hyperrealist renderings.

Altogether, BRAZEN TONGUE with their debut “Of Crackling Embers and Sorrows Drowned” holds its own amongst the shining asteroids that make up the Melodic Extreme Metal scene but struggles to break out of the collective orbit. If Melodic Black or Melodic Death is your game, then this album is worth a bet.