Reviews list for Brutal Truth - Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses (1992)

My choice of ECDER for feature release is based on the fact that after many years of trying to find a Brutal Truth release that I could get on with, I had to go all the way back to their beginning to finally locate their master opus.  Arguably one of death metal/grindcore's best kept secrets, I found the debut release to be for Brutal Truth what Harmony Corruption was for Napalm Death.  Both albums represent the perfect fusion of that grinding chaos and abrasive death metal, done with a thrash metal riff mentality all rolled into one album.  It is all here for me.  The mining death metal riffs, the blitzed structures of the tracks that last mere seconds, and the all out spazzing tsunami of noise that slams over you time and time again.

Brutal Truth do range themselves very nicely on this album.  The variation of tempos and pace are not predictable in any way, shape or form and I often find myself not realising the track has moved into a completely different space until I am a few seconds into the moment.  My point is that this feels like a very organic and natural album that did not need to be forcibly pulled out in to the open.  The experience of the artists comes though both in instrumental aptitude and the social/life awareness that bleeds through in the songwriting.

It is an album that cries out for music videos shot in post-apocalyptic parking lots with burning husks of cars behind the band who just play on relentlessly.  The death metal vocals of Kevin Sharp are reminiscent of Benton in the albums more dark moments yet he possesses the perfect grindcore scowl as well.  Sharp is also credited with handling all "power tool" duties on the album also I note.  Standout performance has to go to Scott Lewis behind the kit though.  He is nothing short of astonishing here and drives a lot of the success of ECDER.

For a debut full-length, ECDER is a real strong statement of intent that never really got realised post-release on future records.  Had the band continued on this hybrid approach then they would have eclipsed the likes of Carcass and Terrorizer in all honesty as this album scratches the dual dm and grindcore itches so well for me.

After revisiting this old friend over the last few days I was reminded of just how well it fits under the "deathgrind" tag. In fact, it may well be the definitive example of what that term was originally intended to describe because it easily harnesses both sounds in roughly equal portions & perhaps that's why it appealed to this particular death metal fanatic at the time because I've never quite found the same level of appeal in grindcore as I have in my beloved death metal. What we have here are 15 tracks that span a variety of tempos but are still undoubtedly designed to crush your cranium into a soft pulp. Former Winter drummer Scott Lewis' blast beats were indeed the fastest thing we'd ever heard at the time & I have to admit that I can't think of anyone that's surpassed them since without employing the gravity blast technique. He's an absolute machine & his endurance is very impressive to say that least. The combination of slower grind grooves & super-fast blast beat sections goes down a treat while Kevin Sharpe's deathly vocals are nicely contrasted by some searing high-pitched screams (presumably contributed by Anthrax/Nuclear Assault/SOD bassist Dan Lilker) which I find to be a real highlight. It all makes for a very entertaining ride, if not one that offers a lot of depth below the surface but that's not exactly what most of this record's audience will be looking for anyway. You'll no doubt be able to pick up the band's influences very obviously across the tracklisting with a Bolt Thrower riff thrown in here & a Napalm Death or Death one tossed in there but I have to admit that I'd never realized just how heavily influenced by Carcass' early works Brutal Truth were until now. It's glaringly obvious at times but is executed in more of a complimentary way than a plagiaristic one. But the biggest strength of "Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses" is in its consistency as it sets a very solid standard early on & never lets it dip throughout a relatively long 45 minute run time for this style of extreme music. It's a real shame that Scott Lewis would leave the band shortly after this album & that Brutal Truth would gradually steer away from their death metal side over the coming albums as they'd really hit on something here & never came close to matching it in my opinion.

For fans of Napalm Death, Terrorizer & early Carcass.

 I am no grindcore expert but I must confess I do love a good slab of musical annihilation that some of the better exponents of the genre can produce and I do rate a few grindcore releases from the like of Napalm Death, Carcass and Terrorizer very highly indeed. So I was pleasantly surprised to hear another slab of grindcore that could comfortably sit next to those titans without shame. In fact, it is even possible that ECDER may have surpassed some, if not all, of those previous genre favourites by sheer virtue of the fact that it offers something a bit different. It is almost like Brutal Truth were visionaries who entered a two-dimensional world of flatness that was early grindcore and then looked beyond into a third dimension and were able to give the genre more depth and perspective as a result.

There is a variety within the confines of the albums boundaries that is seldom heard within the grindcore world and BT don't just rely on beating you into submission with your own severed arms. There is quite a bit of OSDM incorporated into the tracks, unsurprisingly as this was 1992 after all, and even some doomy Autopsy-style DM. But when it really comes down to it these guys could blast the balls off a buffalo - listen to Stench of Prophet for fucks sake and tell me that track doesn't leave casualties in it's wake! But the nature of the album is such that this high velocity assault isn't the only card in it's deck and so, when the band do drop the hammer, it is even more effective for it. Now I'm not 100% if this is truly grindcore, deathgrind or whatever and, frankly, I couldn't give a rat's ass because it a phenomenal slab of early Eighties extreme metal heaven and is an album I have now got to track down a copy of!

Edit: Wow, I can't believe that Brutal Truth were formed by Anthrax's Dan Lilker. Makes SOD look like the limp turd that they were.

Yes! Finally! A band takes the potential of Grindcore and uses it right!

Brutal Truth’s debut is full of extreme high-energy tracks stock full of insane riffage! There is a huge Death/Thrash influence to this thing, and the riffs are super evil sounding despite the wholly political nature of the album. And thank goodness, for once a Grindcore vocalist enunciates, those politically charged lyrics are easy to follow. The vocals aren’t really special in themselves but they get credit for doing what 95% of Grindcore can’t by being god damn intelligible.

The real sauce here is the musicianship, and holy hell these guys can play. I mentioned the riffage earlier, and it is air-tight. Guitar and bass shred along at insane speeds, ripping off the best riffs I’ve heard in the genre yet. The drumming is inhuman, the blast-beats are probably the fastest I’ve heard yet, and actually manage to be on-time (if not incredibly precise). However, the drums are usually not so much sonic aggression as to drown out the tasty riffs, and the guy knows when to play extreme and when to serve the music. Huge plus!

Incredibly awesome Deathgrind and my personal favorite Grindcore album as of its release.

I can't say I like grindcore all that much, but this is plain awesome! Brutal Truth managed what so many other grindcore bands have failed to achieve and they did it way back in 1992. They made a constantly interesting album filled with variety in a genre known for being fairly one dimensional. Of course, there are heaps of grindcore clichés all over the place with combined guttural and screaming vocals, tracks that go for about 5 seconds, lyrics about politics etc. etc. But then there are also stacks of great doomy riffs and tracks like Time, that contains 6 minutes of extremely well-structured song writing as opposed to endless blasting.

Brutal Truth know exactly how to get you pumped up. They're happy to dwell in the dark and heavy depths before pumping into full on battering chaos. Kevin Sharp's vocals are perfect for this style with his death growls being the epitome of awesomeness. Scott Lewis' drumming is just about inhuman. But it's Brent McCarthy's riffs that really float my boat. Check out Birth of Ignorance, Denial of Existence, Time, Walking Corpse and Wilt for simply cracking deathgrind. If you're even slightly interested in the more extreme side of metal, go get this album. You won't regret it!