Oh wow. Ok so going in to this, I'll admit to judging a band by its name initially. With BROND meaning "sword" I initially thought ok so this is going to be some kind of extreme metal, and probably a fairly cheesy kind at that. I was very wrong. BROND, as it turns out, despite calling themselves "quad-voiced-riff-station" (this is fantastic), are about as throwback hardcore punk as you get nowadays, and this was a very pleasant surprise. These Bulgarian rockers show clear influences from THE MELVINS and HENRY ROLLINS which make up that hardcore punk sound, but with a little bit of sludge/stoner like BARONESS thrown in. It's the BARONESS influence that probably drew record label Magnetic Eye to them, as they seem to have an affinity toward bands with that sludgey feel. So how could a band with influences from THE MELVINS, HENRY ROLLINS, and BARONESS possibly be bad? Well quite simply they're not. In fact they're pretty damn excellent.

The debut EP, "Feint" gives a great taste of what this band is about, from the four part vocals, to the in-your-face riffs, and with a great aggressive attitude the whole way through. Despite only having four relatively short tracks, this is a great way to get people to stand up and take notice of a band that should definitely be going places. I refrain from calling the four part vocals "harmonies" because in true punk fashion, the vocals are more like shouting than singing in most places and therefore are hardly harmonies. This works well for the band as it adds to the aggressive attitude and fits with the simple but effective guitar work. Each song has a similar feel to the last, but with how short the EP is, this doesn't have time to wear thin and instead has me craving more. The lyrics are mostly typical punk, going from inanely singing about jumping in to volcanoes on "Lava Divers" , to political and general anger toward humanity like on the rest of the three tracks. BROND may not want to call themselves punk or hardcore due to the direction that those genres have gone as of late, but with themes like these they are proving four times over that it's exactly what they are. It's actually great to see a new and upcoming band tap in to that old school punk feel instead of moving in to the new wave of pop-punk or any of what hardcore has become. It's a genre that many have long ignored, and now with BROND, hopefully they have kicked that door back down for others to follow, instead of sticking to the "safe" genres like pop-punk that completely ignore their roots. BROND do the punk legends proud with their attitude and their great song writing. This combined with their ability to modernize the genre to a certain extent without steering away from it, is something that has been long needed. While they might not be the most musically technical band, they prove that you don't have to be technical to be effective.

I feel like throughout this review, I haven't had a bad word to say about BROND, and that probably because at this point there really isn't anything bad to say. Sure they aren't technical, and they sure don't sound pretty, but that's what they're all about and it works so incredibly well for them, so they really don't need to be. At only four tracks long, "Feint" is absolutely packed full of attitude and guts, and is a great way to introduce and older but updated form of punk to a newer audience. Let's hope we get a full length album from this band soon, because I feel like the world truly needs more of BROND.

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