Energetic death metal was my expectation. They express it more colourfully: “Metal for angry rednecks, beer-drinking tops and music nerds of the hard sounds that want to vent their frustration with everyday life”.

A distinct melodic death metal riff provides the core to “Broken”. It’s “proper metal” with bits of everything – hard hitting instrumentals, growls, a furious pace, a hardcore chorus and an intriguing diversion into spooky darkness. But behind it all is vibrant, chunky metal. Anger and frustration come through in “Hesitation”, another confronting death metal piece. The rhythm section keeps us headbanging and bouncing. It’s furious but the song structure is tight. The pattern remains the same – full-on death metal with twists. One twist I was less keen on was the spoken vocal interjections which I heard on “New Ways” and “Like Gods”. But there’s no faulting the force and the energy.

“Like Gods” continues to pack plenty of punch. The sophisticated progressions belie the outright rawness of it all. Authority and brutality are there in abundance. By contrast, “Perceive the Insanity” is more sombre in a death metal way. The spoken word didn’t sound right, and I never really got into this song, while recognising that Brutal Kraut had diversified their style with one. I was pleased that the following song “All I See” took us back to the rip-roaring, instrumentally twisty end of their range. A times I was hearing a less adventurous version of fellow countrymen Disbelief. Here on “All I See” and elsewhere, the lead guitarist sounded like he’d been listening to some Swedish melo-death bands. A couple of thunderous sections took “Twisted Tongue” above the ordinary but I was starting to tire of the familiar pattern. The album ends with the title song. All the deft techniques are there, and as always the song has life and variety as at one point it deviates into a progressive rock-metal passage, but this wasn’t exciting me.

Lively and heavy as this is, “Progression in Madness” didn’t really rise above the parapet for me. I suspect that Brutal Kraut are a good live band, but I found this album aimless after a while.

(6.5/10 Andrew Doherty)

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https://brutalkraut.bandcamp.com/album/progression-in-madness