GIGANTIC BRAIN — They Did This To Me (review)

GIGANTIC BRAIN — They Did This To Me album cover Album · 2010 · Grindcore Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Conor Fynes
'They Did This To Me' - Gigantic Brain (7/10)

Although this enigmatic one-man project began almost exclusively as a cybergrindcore act, Gigantic Brain has since touched up its sound into something that is quite a bit more ambient, melodic, and atmospheric, rather than the obnoxious drum machine worship that plagued their debut. First showing a shift to ambient music with the second album 'World', Gigantic Brain has now developed into something that works much better with my personal tastes. 'They Did This To Me' is the fourth full-length outing by this act, and once again, I am finding myself impressed by what this guy can do with ambient textures, but turned off by the shallow grind elements. Luckily though, there is less grind in his sound than ever here.

If I was going to make a quick comparison to another artist with Gigantic Brain, it would be Devin Townsend. GB's ambient sounds are brilliantly layered with a deep wall of sound that sounds like it is from another world, and although this project still suffers from fairly scattered album structures and a lack of cohesion, the way he layers sounds atop one another is incredible. By 'ambient' as well, I don't necessarily mean quiet textures; there is stuff here that can get heavier, without diving into grindcore. The comfortable middle ground that Gigantic Brain minds is best described as post-metal, and while the drum machine is still cold and dispassionate sounding, the guitars and synthesized ambiance is very well done.

I get the feeling that there is some sort of atheistic narrative here about God not existing and there being no inherent meaning to life, although this is only brought about by the moments of spoken word dialogue; the growls here are utterly unintelligible, so they're best taken simply as another layer of sound, rather than someone speaking. For the sake of the album's ambiance, this is a good step forward, and helps bring about some level of heaviness, without losing the dreamy vibe of it all. There is lots of variety here amongst the ambient stuff, but- as always- my gripe with this album are the grindcore moments. I am not necessarily opposed to grindcore as a musical genre, but here, it does nothing but to throw off the mood of the rest of the album. There are only a few moments here that are devoted to the drum machine blastbeats, screaming, and downtuned guitar noise, so it's more a case of being a slight nuisance in between the interesting material that Gigantic Brain has to offer.

This is a very interesting ambient metal project, and while I still have some things to criticize about what Gigantic Brain is doing here, there are more than enough interesting ideas and beautiful moments to make the less glorious aspects worth it.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Unearthly Litanies of Despair Death Metal
ENGULFED
Buy this album from MMA partners
It Beckons Us All....... Black Metal
DARKTHRONE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Death Is Not The End Doom Metal
GLOSSA
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Way Forward Sludge Metal
BLACK TUSK
Buy this album from MMA partners
Till Aska Atmospheric Sludge Metal
WALK THROUGH FIRE
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 2 days ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 2 days ago
Agremorta - Vertex Membrana (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 2 days ago
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR - The Temple Of Curved Space (Official Track Stream)
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
adg211288· 2 days ago
In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 3 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed