Brutal Truth
Extreme Conditions Demand, Extreme Responses

The title of this record makes everything easy: "Do you want extreme stuff? What is more extreme than reality?" Brutal Truth are direct, no bullshit: the truth is brutal, and we put it into music at the pace of Grindcore.

I still remember the day I bought this album, when I stepped into a well-known record store near Termini station, looking for something tough. It’s been a year since then, and I've likely listened to over fifty albums that are "tough" like this one, or even more so, yet few hold up to this one's comparison, at least in terms of mood, relative originality, and hardcore attitude. This album was released in '92, which is the birth year of many of those now browsing Debaser, and also the year when extreme metal was in its peak phase. The masterpieces of Brutal Death (Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, Immolation) were already out, and Grindcore had ceased to be just a playful diversion since 1987. Brutal Truth didn't invent anything in this debut album called "Extreme Conditions Demand, Extreme Responses." The music they make is a fairly canonical grindcore, which means tracks under two minutes, slowdowns and accelerations like a blastbeat storm, double growl-screaming vocals. Even the album's theme, namely the denunciation of the mounting crap afflicting the world, is certainly not new: Grindcore was born "political" with "Scum" by Napalm Death. Thus, ignorance, war, superstition, land-raping multinationals, and racism are themes that have already been extensively addressed, albeit by the founders of the genre and the all-important meteor called Terrorizer.

What, then, is beautiful, special, and valid about this album? Simply that it is beautiful, special, and valid. Simply put, it rocks hard. The production is excellent, the riffs and songwriting are thoroughly curated, not to mention the technique, which, although I'm not a great connoisseur, seems ample enough for the genre. The guitars have a great sound, are varied, and the drummer certainly knows how to move well. There's no need to cite the songs; they're all practically on the same level. It’s worth mentioning the opener, "Birth of Ignorance", for that badass riff that sticks in your head for days, and even the world’s shortest song, "Collateral Damage", which lasts all of three seconds.

A direct, extreme, fun album that at the same time doesn't make you feel like a pervert because you're listening to stuff about dismemberments and sexual abuse on putrefying corpses; on the contrary, you can even give yourself airs of being intellectual. I'll say more, you can even leave the album on the table if your girlfriend is around (which I wouldn’t recommend doing with Waco Jesus). In short, if some friend asks me for a recommendation on something "strong," I wouldn't recommend Mortician, Devourment, Cephalotripsy, or even Napalm Death or early Carcass. They wouldn’t understand them. To a friend (real or even Debaserian) asking for something strong, I would undoubtedly recommend this debut album by Brutal Truth.