Far away from easy and accessible MUR are presenting their debut. Based on Black Metal the music is complex and at every moment the listener must count on a surprise. The quintet from France incorporates styles such as Deathcore and Industrial and I totally agree if you stop reading at this point. Both styles are definitely not my favorite ones and therefore “Brutalism” is one of the most challenging albums I have experienced this year. Nevertheless I listened to it at least twice a day during the last week, but it never worked for me. From my point of view the problem is not only the styles the band uses to refine the Black Metal base. It is more about that I can not deny the feeling the band’s aim is to sound as complex and difficult as possible. Even after more than a dozen spins I simply can not identify at least one song, it is just a mixed bunch of sounds. To me it feels like reading a book with so many persons, plots, turning points and meta levels that you are not able to enjoy or at least understand what is happening. Since the band is active for a few years (the musicians have gained experience in other bands and MUR released an self-entitled EP in 2014) I guess the style or concept of “Brutalism” is done on purpose. Broadly spoken I have nothing against multi-layered music with varied or even complex songwriting. But in this specific case it is juts too much for me. For all those not responding allergic and getting convulsions when hearing the buzzwords Deathcore and Industrial and who are craving for one of the toughest challenges Black Metal has to offer this years may visit www.facebook.com/murgenius or www.lesacteursdelombre.net