THE BROWNING – Omni

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7.0

• Bands:
  THE BROWNING
• Duration: 00:26:46
• Available from: 08/11/2024
• Label:

• FiXT

Johnny McBee is one of those musicians who has found his niche as a creator on the internet and is cultivating it properly, with his long-lived “Burn This World Podcast”, in which he interviews various protagonists of the metal scene, as with his broadcasts in streaming on Discord, where he shows the community the process of writing his projects.
The Browning is the main creation of McBee, founded way back in 2005 and active since 2011 with regular publications. Only recently the one-man band added as bassist/guitarist and official member Hardcore Keem, a nice YouTuber who made his fortune with reaction videos and various parallel activities, including the podcast “The Hardcore Keem Show”.
The featuring of the spearhead of this content creator scene, Nik Nocturnal, configures the project as a 'millennial' affair: of course, the band embarks on real tours with the appropriate session workers, but it is reasonable to think that a large part of the hype and attention coming from digital channels.
The Browning's sixth studio album, “Omni”, continues on already very well traced stylistic variables, in which deathcore is increasingly watered down in simple, direct and extremely bizarre solutions. The pride of The Browning has always been, in fact, that of incorporating dance/EDM elements in a structural way, fusing the rave part with the metal part in a marriage that, by now, our band has known how to handle with ease: “Hivemind” and “Misery.exe” are the best examples, in which growls and breakdowns go hand in hand with pulsating beats and effects.
Then there are episodes in which the band flirts with pop (the title track), thanks to the collaboration with the singer of The Defect (McBee's electro rock group), and others in which the devotion to Rammstein is clearly felt (“Soul Drift”), but in general we never deviate too much from the usual constructions with the group's signature, straight like the disco speaker, well dressed and effective, even if the characteristic fury of deathcore is often left out by keeping only the most apparent and characterizing elements such as the double bass drum inserts and the vocal style.
In 2024 this type of crossover no longer shocks anyone, as there are important names that do similar things for a much wider audience (Electric Callboy and Babymetal, albeit with different results) or do it in a more extreme way (Darko, Brand Of Sacrifice ); however, The Browning's style remains quite recognizable and, also thanks to the brevity of the collection and the maturity of the writing, listening is smooth and fun.