Brick Bath's second Crash Music release,
Rebuilt, has the usual ingredients of a metalcore disc: angry lyrics, ultra-fast tempos, chugging guitars, musical density, and a tortured, screaming vocal style. But there are also several things that make
Rebuilt a cut above most metalcore releases of 2003. This CD has a ferocious intensity -- the songs on this CD could easily send a mosh pit into overdrive -- but
Brick Bath, for all their harshness and metal/punk brutality, also have real song structures, some sense of melody (within limits), and a lead singer who is surprisingly understandable. On many metalcore releases, listeners need a lyric sheet to understand what the vocalist is saying -- and
Rebuilt does, in fact, have a lyric sheet. But lead singer Cody Hubbard is, for the most part, understandable even if you don't have the lyric sheet right in front of you -- unlike a lot of metalcore singers (as well as grindcore and death metal/black metal singers), Hubbard doesn't render the lyrics indecipherable. And that's a definite plus because hooks are part of this album's appeal; sledgehammer tracks like "War Inside" and "Contradicted" do have hooks, and moshers will be able to sing along with
Brick Bath's dark, hostile, angst-ridden lyrics. Not that metalcore fans always insist on being able to understand lyrics; many fans of this type of music will be attracted to
Rebuilt because of the album's punishing ferocity and won't spend a lot of time thinking about what Hubbard is saying. But those who do think about lyrics, song structures, and hooks will be glad to know that on
Rebuilt,
Brick Bath doesn't govern by brute force alone. ~ Alex Henderson