What do you get when you stumbled across a brutal death metal group with hardcore signatures that the lyrics are based on a popular Anime show called The Berserk? Well have no fear because Canada’s and New York’s very own Brand Of Sacrifice are a band that tries many styles of extreme music and it honestly worked so damn perfect. After hearing their debut EP The Interstice through Unique Leader Records I was completely blown away how flawless the record became. It was short, heavy, very hardcore driven at times and was excited to hear more. And now with the band’s debut full-length of God Hand, this is already going to become on my end of the year list and I’ll explain why.
Musically, take everything from death metal, deathcore, slam and hardcore put it in a blender with electronic traces here and there and you got yourself God Hand in a nutshell. The artwork speaks for itself as the album is based off The Berserk which contained fantasy and dark horror. God Hand is simply put, an embodiment for modern death metal music and its simply a work of art with musicianship being the biggest highlight of the record. Tracks including Charlotte, Hill Of Swords and my personal favorite track Beast Of Darkness have shorter length of song duration but don’t let it fool on you because the way this band utilized their formula is simply put, astonishing.
God Hand is highly full of energy, dynamic intensities and doesn’t overstay its welcome by all means necessary. They’ve taken the best aspects from The Interstice, mashed it altogether to create death metal nastiness and creative instrumentals to showcase the band’s side for experimenting many different genres all in one album is fantastic. The production, vocals, guitars, bass, drums and everything provided to the album’s listening experience is nothing but amazing.
Tracks are quite melodic, technical and progressive which isn’t entirely horrible by all means but the aggression, emotion and thought being made for God Hand is going to be special many years down the road for extreme music fans. God Hand is a record that offers quality over quantity and if you enjoyed The Interstice then you will surely enjoy this album.
Overall Score: 9.5/10
Review by Jake Butler
