•
Rating:
If Brutal Truth had ended their career here, they would still have earned a place of great respect in the history of extreme music. Their debut, dated 1992, namely "Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses," is certainly an impressive calling card. A Grind album with all its might, raw from the cover, which in my opinion, however, cannot detach itself from what had already been done shortly before by English pioneers like Napalm Death and Carcass.
Two years later comes the follow-up. "Need To Control" stands out immediately for its stunning cover, a kneeling samurai who has just made his ultimate decision, the way of the samurai in its essence. Behind is a photo of the group, four shady figures with long hair in a dirty alley of the Big Apple. The image that comes to mind is that of a street gang, the street mentality, attack to avoid being attacked, urban warriors of our time.
The band proves they are capable of going beyond Grind, with noisy elements surfacing disruptively from the first track "Collapse." The production does its job, the bass is at the forefront, propelling the entire caravan at supersonic speed. The group is incredibly tight, an impressive sonic flow for its power, capable of flattening the listener, with accelerations that peel your face off, try listening to a track like "Godplayer." The vocal parts are well done, Kevin Sharp knows his craft, and great is the contribution of the crazy bassist Danny Lilker. During the tribute to the Germs "Media Blitz," Mike Williams from EyeHateGod joins in. A mix of sonic extremism that with avant-garde spirit takes fragments of the past, think Hardcore, Grind, Death, and launches them at breakneck speed on its own track. Sometimes you really get the impression of seeing a train at full speed on the brink of derailment. 'Need To Control,' indeed.
"I have found that the way of the samurai is death. Faced with the alternative of life and death, it is preferable to choose death. Dying without having achieved the goal is a dog's death."
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Black Door Mine (01:43)
[extra throat noise by Bill Yurkiewicz (EXIT-13) courtesy of Relapse Records]
Idle and silent
Idle and silent
Idle and silent
Burn alone
From time to time one can find
Reason enought to draw the line
Complacency charmes our world's decline
Progress is treason defined
Will you see beyond your black door mine
04 Godplayer (04:08)
[Brutal Truth]
[digerdoo handled by Andy Haas]
Dilution of pain
Bleed incompetent reign
Life throught purity
Humanity maintained
It brings in hope of precious life
Answers agony divine
Push ill-thoughts
Of humanities decline
Finally, system feeds, travesties
Chokes life's inner sancity
Skeptically, you'll see,
Their lives ain't worth a dime
In the end, you and I will never see
Look as one one, upon this blasphemy
If I was you, I'd adjust my sensitivity
Blame or fault, question rationality
In the end, you and I will never see
Pain is small defy your own mortality
Run again, answers will be the same
Open your eyes and see it for what it is
Corporate science destroying lives in the benefit of none
Liberation from the foolish
Cash in cost, rhyme or reason ... no!
07 Bite the Hand (02:08)
[Brutal Truth]
Point down on me
As if you seek
Look to yourself
Think for yourself
For what's to be
Will always be
Why can't you see
Life creates its own decision
Why point at me?
Just say what you got to say
Judging your actions
Conditioned fools will always... pay
12 Choice of a New Generation (02:00)
Reformation at hand
Our time to stand
Misconceptions are a thing of the past
Enslaved minds give birth to a new generation
Your generation
The myth, a fiction of what you will believe
Lies, corruption, fininaial catastrophe
Legality, the only way
Progressive hemp-minded, call for legality
Ignorant and fearful, rejecting on 13
Their foolish lies will break our backs beyond humanity
Legality the only way
14 Displacement (04:16)
[Brutal Truth]
No more...
Blind falsity
Tears left to see
Fear left in me
Pain inside me head
No more...
Corporate casualities
Progress, myths and lies
Would you, call upon a book of lies
Blame aside, watch you try and rationalize
Push walls to the threshold of pain
Genetics unmatched in the inhuman acts of capitalist fucks
Cashing grants, the majority obvious to pain and suffering,
Would you, fall from grace, desensitize
Crawl inside socially fed mass genocide
Would you, face the truth or capitalize
Falsify, bloodshot cracks in visions eye
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By Perez
"Compactness is the watchword for Brutal Truth: a volcano that explodes in your face, without too many compromises."
"This 'Need to Control' is as powerful, brutal, and well-played as it gets, in a spiral of slow and hefty rhythms, heart-pounding accelerations, and so much anger to spit into those damn microphones."
