Brutus “Nest on ‘The 50 Best Albums Of 2019 So Far’ // Stereogum

via Stereogum

12. Brutus – Nest (Sargent House) 

Words don’t do it justice. They can’t. Words can’t capture Nest, the second album from Belgian post-metal power trio Brutus. For instance: Nest feels like a primal howl, a raging fire, a force of nature. Describe it in those terms, though, and you’ve inadvertently erased the entire process — the discipline, the dedication, the painstaking, life-encompassing labor — required to create a work of art that feels like this. Another example: The focal point of Brutus is drummer/singer Stefanie Mannaerts, whose face-scorching performances throughout the entirety of Nest suggest a superhuman talent, an Olympian greatness, an unknowable brilliance. Reduce Brutus to Mannaerts alone, though, and you’ve failed to understand the essential contributions of her co-workers — bassist Peter Mulders, guitarist Stijn Vanhoegaerden, and producer Jesse Gander — all here in the room alongside Mannaerts, everyone in precisely perfect balance with everyone else, each component supporting, propelling, and elevating both its counterparts and the whole. When you listen to Nest, you hear a golden-glowing lightning-wielding storm-goddess deity laying waste to Zoroastrian hell realms. –Michael 

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