Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Brutal Truth - End Time


All of my friends (online and in person) that are grindcore fans LOVE Brutal Truth. After hearing about them almost constantly after the release of Evolution Through Revolution, I decided it was time to humor my friends and get it. My first reaction was “what the hell?” But then after about a year or so it started to grow on me, therefore causing me to look forward to their next release. Well, it’s finally here and I’ll say, it’s nothing like Evolution Through Revolution…that is…until the third song. First impressions (aka the opening track on an album) are very important in my opinion, and Brutal Truth has done an excellent job at choosing the worst and most misleading songs to put in front of all the others. But enough riff-raff from me, let’s jump into this damn thing.

The first track isn’t something I listen to mainly because it’s literally noise and random notes that drag on for 15 minutes. I’m fine with noise, but not if it’s annoying and has constant high-pitched guitar harmonics. But I’m not going to bitch about that because all you have to do is press the “skip” button to go to track two. What you get out of that is a song that is MUCH MUCH slower than the Brutal Truth that you’re used to and is even a bit refreshing and shows some creativity. Malice has a really ambient sound with booming drums and mid-range vocals that make sure that you AREN’T prepared for what they have lying in wait for you. Not only that, Malice is longer than most traditional Brutal Truth tracks, so don’t let that mislead you either.

You are then bludgeoned by the explosively powerful and merciless sound of the kick drums and guitars from Simple Math (whatever that’s supposed to mean). This is where the real fun action starts. I am happy to say that unlike Evolution Through Revolution, the overall sound quality of End Time is extremely professional! I love how you can actually HEAR everything! But other than that, there’s not TOO much difference between the two albums. I will say that the musicians have improved a great deal (not that it’s completely noticeable).

The drummer doesn’t seem completely lost like he does in Evolution Through Revolution. He actually does his job of being the backbone of the music and keeping things going. The funny thing is that the vocalist has changed quite a bit. He used to have a much deeper and dirtier yell, and now he has more of a falsetto raspy vocal style that occasionally switches to a deeper mid-range growl. I have no idea if the high-pitched thing he does is healthy or not, but it does sound a lot more professional and developed than what he did before. Other than that, there isn’t much to this album other than that it’s an excellent mix of death metal and grindcore, but with much more grind than death. I would give this record 15/20. 

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