Brutality - Antecedent Offerings EP (2018)

Antecedent Offerings is essentially a limited run, 500 copy 7" collectors' item in which 3/4ths of Brutality's 'classic' lineup revisiti a track each from their seminal offerings Screams of Anguish and When the Sky Turns Black and re-record them to see how they can be performed with over two decades' accrued experience and proficiency. Perhaps even a dash of contemporary studio 'wizardry', which has presumably also come some ways since the 90s (in either a positive or negative direction, depending who you might ask). As such, it's not like the band has fully committed to remaking a lot of their catalog, they just hand-picked two cuts which I'd assume are ones fans might want to hear in this context, and had at them.

Admittedly, I find both of these renditions a little dull, lacking the crushing potency of the original incarnations. The mix is quite consistent, the riffs performed well, perhaps even more 'balanced' across the speakers, but as soon as I go back to the brighter, album version of "Crushed", it just emotionally and sonically violates this new version, sounding like the genuine Florida death metal that put the band on the map in that 'second string' of bands beneath the legends like Morbid Angel or Death. The older version does feel a lot more youthful, maybe even disjointed in a few of the transition areas, and the remake is smoother in that area, I'll grant it, but the overall mix just has nowhere near the same level of energy for me. This is doubly the case for "Artistic Butchery" which also seems like a more lifeless version, and I get that it's 'death metal' haw haw haw but really there is no point to hearing the new over the original. The one thing that does remain very consistent between the two eras is the vocals, which sound almost identical on a good number of their lines.

So while this is only intended as a limited edition collectible and nothing to take so seriously, I have to say it doesn't do much for me whatsoever. The one positive is that it made me listen through those first two records again, which are slightly underappreciated gems from the 90s era, but I wouldn't go out of my way to hear either of these again. They don't suck in terms of production, but lack the personality in 2018 that their forebears had in 1993-1994. Skip it and listen to those albums, or even their last record Sea of Ignorance, which is much more exciting with its newer material.

Verdict: Fail [4/10]

http://brutalitytheband.com/

Brutality - Sea of Ignorance (2015)

I go into a number of these death metal reunion/comeback albums with an appropriate level of trepidation, so often are they lacking or just plain content to recycle a level of musicianship and songwriting that they had already conquered. Brutality had a long history of several successive reformations and splits before they got their act back together around 2012 and soon after graced us with a solid EP in Ruins of Humans, so perhaps some of the apprehension was unwarranted. Having now heard the crowd-funded Sea of Ignorance over the course of several spins, I can say that this is in fact a competent reclamation of their status on the Tampa underground and in all likelihood one of the most genuinely 'Florida' sounding USDM records I've heard in some years, rekindling not only the aesthetics of their first two cult classic albums but also some of the fires that lit other bands like Resurrection, Deicide and old Death.

That's not to say it's exceptional in any way, but if we're seeking a record that could have come out in 1996 as a successor to When the Sky Turns Black, this scratches the itch slightly better than the album that actually DID come out, In Mourning, which wasn't bad, but definitely dulled down a little of the appeal. This new Brutality is more or less a measured balance of slower, double bass drumming death metal roil patterns, a little lumbering death/doom, and some spry melodic death integration in a few of the faster tremolo picked guitar harmonies which offers a welcome relief against this ever becoming dull. Leads are well structured and catchy, revealing both classical and bluesy orientations that work well against the brutal rhythm riffing, especially in cuts like "Fatal Cure"; and it's good they do, because without this element I feel this might become a painstakingly average affair since there is simply little creativity in revisiting the blueprints so long left behind and not tweaking or twisting them in any new combination. The broad gutturals and snarls of Reigel and Acres are not the most distinct in death metal, and almost all the important atmosphere created throughout the original tunes would be nowhere without all those harmonies and controlled shredding passages. They truly elevate the experience, the product of some good decision making.

Drums and bass are brick tight here, but the latter doesn't develop much of a presence against the churning of the other guitars. As for the cover of Bathory's "Shores in Flames", I feel as if it might have been better left off the album or put on a tribute or something, because the style here is so different than what Brutality write for themselves that it stands out like a dragon ship in a white water rafting contest. I appreciate that these guys have a broad taste in metal and enjoy Quorthon, but the real issue is that they never 'own' the cover. It never becomes flush and fluid with the other songs, and while its produced cleanly it feels too much like the original, just meatier. It simply breaks up the flow of the other songs, and I probably would have enjoyed it a little more if it was replaced or just left off the core of the album entirely. It's not 'bad' by any means, but to interrupt these 3-4 minute bruisers with an 11+ Viking heavy metal epic seems like the one choice here that doesn't live up to the rest, which are all pretty sound...this is a Brutality record by and large which lives up to the band's name and legacy, and even though it's not likely to supersede any nostalgic twinge I might have for Screams of Anguish or When the Sky Turns Black, it's proof positive that a), they are back, and b) they've still got it.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

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Brutality - In Mourning (1996)

And another great death metal band abandons their iconic logo...for reasons I must assume have something to do with the mid 90s and its climate of bricks and hardcore. The evolution of the street, keepin' it all real. Banal typeset within banal typeset. A crass urbanization of extreme music. Cover your eyes. Thankfully, Brutality have not mutated where it counts, in actual musical content, and In Mourning was a no-nonsense, solid third and final offering for Nuclear Blast records. Also their swansong, their last statement of hostility against a well saturated, dwindling background of ideas. The band had dragged Jim Morris along for this ride, and it's another of the guy's great productions: clear, powerful guitar tone, great mix of percussion and vocals, perhaps the most polished of the three Brutality full-lengths, but it's a toss up.

There are about four songs here that number among the best they've ever written, and arguably the best of their career. "Obsessed" is a start/stop burst to chug barnstormer redolent of the works of Deicide, Cannibal Corpse and other peers, but it's centric rhythms are matured and decidedly old school enough to get the blood pistons charged, solos stoking cerebral spikes, toying with the listener as chords collide with other chords. "The Past" opens with another total kick ass Death-style rhythm, frenetic melody winding down above the concrete, squealing coronary. Yet another incredible lead sequence here to nurture the imagination. "Destroyed by Society" is my favorite individual track on the album, a memorable architecture of bouncing, chugging squeals and miniature solos processed into a matrix of menacing grooves and resonant gutturals. Deeper into the lineup, we've got "Calculated Bloodshed" and its amazing, desolate intro which hits like a more melodic Florida alternative to England's Bolt Thrower.

Unfortunately, outside of these selections, the album is less than dominant. The remainder of the songs consistently exhibit the band's dynamic range, never repeating itself with drab abandon, yet there are few riffing sequences that strike so hard into the memory. A few of them, like the 8+ minute "Subjected to Torture" or the closer "Extinction" feel too lengthy, without the strong patterns of notation to guide the listener into the band's murderous apocrypha. Here or there, some guitar will stand out among the rest, but there are often bouts with needless repetition and uninspired, derivative compositions. Still, In Mourning as a whole is quite tight. Brutality might not have lasted in the long run, but no one can accuse them of selling out to the rising mallcore militia that adopted a number of other death metal acts as their Pantera alternative. This is one band that, once getting their shit together around 1992, never really disappointed its audience. They deserve all the adulation of the fallen and obscure, if not for In Mourning then for the two preceding albums.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] (blandly accepting fate)

http://originalbrutality.tripod.com/

Brutality - When the Sky Turns Black (1994)

After taking a sizable stride forward with Screams of Anguish, the unsung Brutality would do it all again the following year through When the Sky Turns Black, their second album for Nuclear Blast. Anyone familiar with the debut will recognize many of the same strengths: a clear and powerful Morrisound mix courtesy of Jim Morris, tightly executed musicianship on par with most of the Florida peers, forceful songwriting cognizant of fluctuating dynamics. If there was one minor evolution of note, it seemed that Brutality had become more focused on the incorporation of melody directly into their hammering rhythms and tremolo guitar lines. I'm still drawn to comparisons of UK bands Benediction and Bolt Thrower, but these are due in part to the gruff and level gutturals.

When the Sky Turns Black is inaugurated with the title track, rolling double bass rhythms like concrete pylons beneath the scintillating dual melodies, soon to lurch into a grooving tumult with miniature, spliced leads. It's not immediately catchy, but it picks up intensity around 1:15 when the double bass returns to accompany a more carnal, disgusting riff. "Race Defects" uses an airy, clean guitar passage before its own alternating blast/grooves commence, moving at the same relative pace as the first track. Like Screams of Anguish, there are a couple of moderately brief instrumental passages here in "Awakening" and "Esoteric", both tasteful and driven by the clean, acoustic guitar tones. They've also included a cover of Black Sabbath's "Electric Funeral", which it turns out is pretty damn effective as a death/doom hybrid, but most of my favorite tracks here come later on the recording: the staggering, oft bursting "Foul Lair", the meaty fortitude of "Artistic Butchery", or the pulverizing climax "Shrine of the Master".

With all of the keys to success here, Brutality should have broken out far beyond their regional association, but this album ultimately wound up in the same seat of obscurity in which its elder sibling had planted its considerable posterior. Seriously, not many death metal records of the day possessed a production standard this high, and it has retained its polish through the years. If I'm comparing it to Screams of Anguish, then I'd have to place this slightly beyond the debut. There are still some barriers restraining it from the status of a masterpiece, primarily the fact that the majority of its guitar riffs are not individually distinct or masterful enough to scale that height, and the vocals don't have a ton of character to them. However, in every other department, this band soared. Memorable, iconic cover art, good lyrics, potent musicianship, varied songwriting that never numbs the listener. It's well worth the expense to add this to your CD collection.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (people lay wasted, condemned)

http://originalbrutality.tripod.com/

Brutality - Screams of Anguish (1993)

Screams of Anguish marked an excellent transition for one of the more unsung acts in the formative Florida death scene. It might have taken seven years since the band's creation to arrive, but it stands far above the demos and EPs that the band had previously produced, eschewing their rugged thrash/grind crossover roots entirely for an onslaught of well written, immaculately produced death metal that integrates both atmosphere and variation into a punishing palette. Perhaps the worst you could say for Brutality was that by 1993 standards, they were not wholly original, drawing on elements from both their direct American peers and overseas (Bolt Thrower), but the music has this incredible maturity to it which absolutely bears distinction among the better known Florida bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide, Death, and so forth. In fact, Screams of Anguish is the best death metal album from this particular scene and year, no mean feat when up against such legends.

"These Walls Shall Be Your Grave" inaugurates the album with a straight, Morbid Angel style blast sauced in glittering, manic micro-leads; but soon grinds down to an atmospheric verse of melodic death/doom, returning to Altars of Madness levels of fury in the bridge. Scott Reigel's vocals here are quite enormous, like a hybrid of Karl Willetts and Glen Benton's growling affixed forcefully to the hammering bass drums and manic riffs. "Ceremonial Unearthing" combines a lot of the same influences as the first track, but then we're in for our first surprise: the synthesized choir and acoustic guitar piece "Sympathy", totally unexpected but quite delicious despite its simplicity. "Septicemic Plague" lays out a wall of huge chords, cystic leads spun off into their own dimension of excess, before the excellent battery of the bridge, muted and melodic. Most of the album's remainder is equivalent in quality, with standouts coming in the rampant "Cryptorium" and epic "Cries of the Forsaken". There's one more ambient interlude, "Spirit World", which again fuses synthesized swells (of haunting winds) and clean guitars; and the album is closed with a reworking of "Spawned Illusion" from the Sadistic EP, and it sounds stunning here.

Brutality had quite a lot going for them, and alongside their statesmen Resurrection they would represent some of the best pure death metal on the earlier Nuclear Blast roster. Here was a band that could cycle through faster and slower material without ever dipping in quality, and restrain their obvious musical ability whenever it did not suit the mood they were creating. The debut was recorded and mixed by Jim Morris at Morrisound, undoubtedly some of the most satisfying audio from that period, with loud and clean, crushing guitar tones, empowered drums, a relatively thick bass presence and dour, conquering gutturals. There is next to no chance of becoming exhausted or bored with this record due to the excellent structure and constant in tempos, and the atmospheric tracks are placed at just the right joints to hint at so much more: a further dimension of possibility. The lyrics are well written if not impressive. Perhaps the riffs are not individually compelling, and the band is rehashing the dynamics of bands like Deicide, Malevolent Creation, Morbid Angel, etc, but these are the only strikes against a potent and substantial debut which is still worth experiencing almost 20 years later.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (choking on man's corruption)

http://originalbrutality.tripod.com/

Brutality - Sadistic EP (1992)

Though Brutality's Hell on Earth EP served as little more than a scatterbrained, ineffective bastard of crossover thrash and extreme metal, they would return in a few years with something far more focused, concise, and representative of their peak studio works Screams of Anguish (1993) and When the Sky Turns Black (1994). The Sadistic EP features only two tracks, released as a 7" and EP through Nuclear Blast; both of which have been made redundant through various issues of the debut album, but here they have tightened in on an actual style which works well for them, a clear mix of Harmony Corruption-era Napalm Death, their own Floridian Death, and perhaps some of the bludgeoning force of Suffocation and Cannibal Corpse for good measure.

"Sadistic" offers juggernaut, driving rhythms that are spliced through the core by rampant and memorable leads, plus all the double bass blasting and morbid chaos you would expect out of a 90s death metal band beginning to tow the line of what was possible. In the wake of a Morbid Angel or Deicide, this might not seem all that extreme, but certainly this band was flirting with the edge of possibility, pushing themselves as hard as they could. "Spawned Illusion" is even more of a primal battering, and though it was rendered less interesting due to its near immediate repressing to the Screams of Anguish album, its still neck-breaking fun.

Of course, the limited pressing of this release and the low level of content makes this a pretty useless purchase by today's standards, unless you are a collector of such frivolities. There's a newer issue of Screams of Anguish which contains both tracks, and considering just how good the debut album is in full, it's worth it to skip over thoughts of this and just purchase that, unless you are a collector of authentic, early works, in which case the actual value of content is not so much a factor in your spending. The songs here are pretty good, admittedly, but the format is played out and "Spawned Illusion" at least is better experimented among its creative peers in 1993.

Verdict: Fail [4.5/10]

http://originalbrutality.tripod.com/

Brutality - Hell On Earth EP (1990)

Brutality. How many bands must have striven for that particular moniker, only to have realized it was snatched out of their grasp by this one? Direct, memorable, and to the point, you cannot help but to like it. In fact, you cannot help but to enjoy the lion's share of this Florida act's material, because they produced two excellent and underrated albums during the USDM burst of the 90s: Screams of Anguish (1993) and When the Sky Turns Black (1994). Alas, the band had already been around for some time, and took some time to develop their grisly roots to the level of such cult classics. Hell on Earth was the band's first 'official' release after a string of demos. The material was snagged from the latest of these (Dimension Demented) and showcases a far more primitive, less effective entity than what they'd become.

Basically this is crude thrash and grindcore with a huge influence from Hellhammer or Celtic Frost. Dumb and pissed off, too often cussing lyrics about drug addiction and other domestic abuses. Painfully few riffs of any note, and vocals that cast a brutal and blood drenched glamor, but stick out far too much from the mix. "Hell On Earth" is a simple burst of violence burdened with obvious, predictable notes, though the breakdown at 1:30 is carnal and effective with the sloppiness of the raw solo riding it. "Narcotious Addictous" would be the track most reminiscent of Celtic Frost, with the same sort of low-end, grinding groove that band made popular on their earlier works. This would also be my choice of the three here, because the vocalists come up with some grisly screams and throat tearing amidst the less worthy lyrics, and there's another wet and messy solo. "My First Night" is a bit more straight hardcore/punk crossover with metallic screaming and a speed lick in the bridge.

There are quite a few ideas here, almost a nexus of the various extreme metal formats that were flitting about the scene in those days: hardcore, grind, and primitive death metal the foremost among them. However, where the band's later albums show excellent atmosphere and focus, this feels like something any band could have ground out in their garage one afternoon. The mix is muddy and unbalanced, the songs almost entirely ineffective, lacking the structure and menace of their Floridian peers (Morbid Angel, Death, Obituary and others were already tearing us a new one). I didn't get anything out of this. That said, do not think to ever write off this band due to Hell On Earth; because the blood tides will turn far in their favor in the ensuing years.

Verdict: Fail [4/10]

http://originalbrutality.tripod.com/