Bokluk - Taphonomy

Bokluk

Taphonomy

by Keith "Zirra" Ham at 12 May 2014, 1:08 PM

There is something to say about bands which start their album off with what can only be described as the sounds of something borrowing its way out of your skull. I don’t know exactly what those words are but I’m sure they involve at least three exclamations and several expletives (for those who don’t know what those are, I’m talking curse words). BOKLUK, whatever that name could possibly mean, is an old school Death Metal band from Spain. Though, I’m not totally sure how ‘old school’ they actually are -besides the fact that they don’t use any extreme scale guitars or deep down tuning- BOKLUK certainly carries that skull crushing quality that extreme metal fanatics such as myself are keen of.

Lyrically, I can’t really state if this album has any sort of merits or lack of because frontman Alex has that guttural style going on - the kind where you really can’t understand it at first so you eventually look up the lyrics in the booklet. It doesn’t detract, its completely expected for me as this is the umpteenth time I’ve listened to this sort of band, but I sort of feel like maybe BOKLUK’s stylistic choice detracts from their ‘stand out’ factor. I am digging the song titles though, stuff like "Mindfuck Self" and "Excrement" just make me wonder what the hell is going on here.

Sadly, I have to swing back to the ‘stand out’ factor here. As BOKLUK sort of dwindles mid-album with some very same-ish riffs here and there. As well, the constant use of 16ths for the drums almost drives me mad and detracts from great tracks like "Creed Of Excruciation". Which, is a shame seeing for the most part I sort of like what BOKLUK is doing here and I really want to see them succeed. Thankfully things pickup with the track "Taphonomy" and immediately I felt my faith in BOKLUK grow.

What else is there to say about BOKLUK’s "Taphonomy" besides the fact that it's pretty brutal? Sure it's a little not-so-exciting midway and something feels sort of rinse and repeat but hell BOKLUK kills it when it does. Check them out!