Reviewed by Eamonn Keyes

Although Orkney has a strong traditional folk musical heritage and reputation, playing music outside the genre is much more problematic, with many of the elements required to both accommodate and develop music being absent or depending on self-help. Each year in September the Orkney Rock Festival strives to showcase both local and regional talent with a minimum of resources and infrastructure, working away in the background to sustain local Rock and Metal music and give opportunities to bands such as Bryttania.

Over the past 25 years the Music Industry has changed itself to maximise profits from successful artists and hugely reduce their investment and grooming of upcoming talent, leading to a bland landscape of featureless music designed to grab the attention for a few days before being discarded for the next on the assembly line. To that end, playing Rock and Metal music and trying to progress a career within the genre becomes a Sisyphean struggle with very little return or attention for those dedicated enough to take that path. It requires dedication, imagination, talent, skill and perseverance, and has broken the vast majority of bands taking that journey, leaving most unheard in today’s world.

Bryttania formed as a very young Agents Of Fortune (borrowed from the classic 1976 Blue Öyster Cult album title ) in 2017 in Orkney, changing to the current name in 2019, and have regularly been using the Orkney Rock Festival as their main showcase, with other occasional gigs taken as the opportunity arises, but which are still relatively sparse. The band are currently a 6 piece outfit, notably even beating BOC with 4 guitarists, and have a style that encompasses classic early Metallica and Megadeth Thrash with some elements of Stoner Rock.

A couple of years ago they initially delved into recording a ‘Live At the St. Magnus Centre’ CD with three tracks and have now decided to start seriously upping their profile by going down the self-help route,  writing, recording and releasing their 4 track Dr. Metal EP at the end of February on Bandcamp, where it is now available. It’s a very brave route to take given the skill, knowledge – and above all the experience – required for this step to be successful..

Opener ‘The Thirteenth Hour’ kicks off in a promising style, very thrashy with a repetitive punishing riff and a pretty decent guitar solo, and at less that 3 minutes long is uncharacteristically short for a metal song, as are most of the songs on the EP.

It’s followed up by ‘Shockwave’ which could do with quite a bit more development, as there’s a lot of promise that isn’t fully delivered and should be. Kick it around a bit, speed it up and get it to bounce a bit more drum-wise and it could be a highlight both recorded and live.

‘Top Level’ is back into driving Thrash territory but with an unexpected hook chorus that could be exploited more. Guitar solo starts off well, but I feel the departure from the standard Blues/seventh scale to a Major scale halfway through needs to be re-examined.  Some nice licks though.

‘Agents of Fortune’ could easily be a punk song from somebody like SLF in the late 70s and is completely different from everything that has gone before. I expect the Dirty Rotters could be covering it soon. Plenty of energy, and I suspect this may have been one of the first songs the band wrote from some years ago when they first formed.

Overall, the EP has indications of what the band can be with careful thought over their direction and some attention to the potential in their songwriting. They can undoubtedly play but need to find a more personal style in the recording process that accurately reflects more of what they can do live.                  

Drummer Ewan Howe claims that the EP’s mix focuses on a ‘raw and rough’ sound, and it is certainly that. What I would suggest is a remix on some better equipment, as I feel the monitors may be handicapping the mix. I can hear very little bass guitar, unless the band is going for the ‘And Justice for All’ sound, and this indicates the monitors may accentuate bass that vanishes in less coloured systems and drums are too far back in the mix.                                                          

A band’s foundation comes from a solid mix of bass and drums, and this isn’t being utilised in the recordings. Less reverb on drums and vocals too.  All rookie mistakes, and I expect the band are using far from professional equipment.  This highlights what I said initially, there is little support or mentoring available on Orkney to help these guys get closer to what they’re trying to achieve and they are certainly capable of doing it. It isn’t easy, and perhaps taking on board the opinions and some help from some more experienced Orkney rockers, if it was available, would certainly help them progress very quickly.

I look forward to hearing more from them and seeing them live in the future.

Dr. Metal Bandcamp page: https://bryttania.bandcamp.com/album/dr-metal

Encyclopaedia Metallum page https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Bryttania/3540490194