Bronco - Bronco - Metal Epidemic

Bronco – Bronco
Release Date: 28th February 2025
Label: Magnetic Eye Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Southern Sludge, Doom, Stoner.
FFO: Weedeater, Bongzilla, Eyehategod, Indian, Toke, Church of Misery.
Review By: Mark Young

With a guitar tone that is thick enough to chew on, Bronco bring a decidedly southern flavoured doom spectacle on their debut full length release. The three-piece, who pulled together following the motorcycle accident that put paid to Toke and dug deep, bringing their influences from that band plus the upbringing in North Carolina to drop an album that understands how to properly bring the two worlds of sludge and doom together in a palatable mix. Riffs ring out, propelled by the knowing touch of JP on drums and the scarifying vocals of Bronco, who also supplies the lowest of low ends.

This is an album that is all about the riff, about how they can write memorable music that doesn’t betray that core belief that this music has to work in order to keep the listener engaged with it. The opening pair of Scourge Descent and Ride Eternal go some way to set the scene of what I normally associate with doom records – ponderous rhythms, heavy work and its good stuff, but it comes to life on Light of God which carries with it a delicious swing and movement that is built around an effective arrangement which has more of that vibe that I associate with metal from the south. It has a feel good, get a beer mood to it that I love. Similarly, for Night the Lights Went out in Georgia, the lighter touches before it digs down into riffsville and an incredible earworm chorus brings that southern-rock vibe further to the front. It’s still heavy, but it has this amazing groove to it.

Legion keeps the grooves coming, the simple but direct arrangement doing the lord’s work in showing that you don’t need a million notes a second or super-complex guitar work to be effective. The lead break on this one is a cracker, perfectly fitting the lead heavy riff behind it, and JP again on drums closes things out on this to a satisfying end. I must give props to Vic on guitar too, because the sound is super dense without losing any clarity in it. Fades All is a great example of what good sounding guitars should be like, serving the song and combining with the bass and drums to feel like a living creature.

Damnation decides it’s time to go dark, going straight into doom territory and whilst it’s heavy AF, it feels slightly flat after the four that came before it. In much the same way the opening two had that massive sound and were oppressive, as you might expect given the style, those songs in-between grabbed me in a more effective manner. T.O.N.S. is their closing statement and stays in the same lane as Damnation, and as the former it keeps the heaviness in check it lumbers along, crying out for an injection of that southern groove that the others possessed. Again, from a doom perspective there is absolutely nothing wrong with it – the slow style crushes, and it still sounds incredible, it’s just not as engaging to me. All told, it’s a solid debut from them which will undoubtably appeal to fans of both styles.