Bragging Rights – Small Gods

Maybe we’ll do this more often—giving acts from the deep underground a full platform, as long as they send stuff in advance. Bragging Rights (the name cracks me up) is a project that, by looking at its cover art, you’d think was satirical. I wasn’t quite sure if this meant the album was going to be deeply serious or just troll me harder than this. Either way, I came in with a better disposition than usual because I was on vacation and felt like humanity deserved a chance again (I can’t wait for them to let me down…). Alright, let’s see what Small Gods puts on the table.

At first, I had difficulty putting Small Gods in a genre box, but then it hit me. This sounds more like Gojira than the last two Gojira albums. It has those punching riffs that no other band has perfected. If anything, I’m impressed by how Gojira-like Small Gods sounds. However, it’s not exactly the same; there’s some room for changes. Bragging Rights is way more direct and focuses more on attacking you than setting up an atmosphere. So, it’s a leaner version of this Prog school, to the point where I was thinking that this had the sound, but not the 300 transitions typical of the genre. I can see how this will be polarizing for you, my dear corpse-pained children, since some of you want more wanking and some no wanking. I’d say Small Gods is close to the no-wank department in this effort.

Small Gods is guitar and vocally-driven, with the bass and drums taking a much more discreet place in the mix. I truly enjoyed the vocals. They’re harsh, but they never get too brutal (nothing wrong with brutality, but it’s a pleasant combination). You’ll also find several fun melodic-tapping lines that will bring back the best days of The Way of All Flesh. However, each track in Small Gods demands a smaller investment; they’re compact and to the point. However, it’s time for your favorite part of the review, the one where I politely suggest to professional musicians how to improve their work from my luxurious 1886 Danish table.

Many would argue that Bragging Rights is taking too much from the French, which is a valid point. However, many loved bands are clones of bigger ones (listen to Car Bomb or Chthe’ilist and tell me they’re not Meshuggah and Demilich clones), so I’m not annoyed by that. The only thing that deeply concerns me in Small Gods is the cymbals of the drums. “What? Catto, that’s extremely nitpicky.” Hear me out! The album might be short, but it has 14 tracks, and the drumming could sound clearer, especially in a style so dependent on it. The cymbals sound as if they were underwater or in another room, and I can’t stop noticing.

If you miss Gojira‘s good days and have no patience for ultra-long Prog, then Bragging Rights has something interesting for you. It has groove, riffs, and catchy vocal lines. Just be prepared for some production shortcomings. Great, can someone explain why there’s an angry swan/goose on the cover? Is it saying “peace was never an option”? Fine, if that’s the case, it has to be the most British humor way to tell me this sounds mean. I’ll laugh this one time.

Label: Self-released

Release date: 20 September, 2024

Website: https://braggingrights2022.bandcamp.com/music

Country: UK (Wales)

Score: An angry goose! Or 3.5/5.0!