Brutality
Screams Of Anguish

Welcome back to "Discovering Forgotten Death Metal," the series of which we should now be at the thirteenth chapter; I still have many works ignored by today's public that were well-received by critics and fans at the peak of this musical genre's success.

Today's chapter features Brutality, a highly important American band in the national and, why not, global scene. Born in the late eighties, they were probably influenced initially by their compatriots, and later by various international Death Metal bands from the early nineties; among all, I feel inclined to mention especially Benediction, but also Napalm Death (from "Harmony Corruption" and "Utopia Banished") and even Carcass (from "Necroticism; Descanting The Insalubrious"). Undoubtedly, other bands like Carnage, Obituary (a lot), early Gorguts, and early Death also played a role in the stylistic evolution of this band, which reached its debut and peak precisely in 1993 with "Screams Of Anguish." Some of you might think the album in question arrived slightly late compared to the masterpieces of the aforementioned bands, but I want to clarify a few things; almost all the bands I named were formed in the same years, so the more or less delayed release of their albums is mostly due to the difficulty some faced in securing a contract. This means that while the most famous bands experienced glory in years like 1990 and 1991 and declined around 1994, the less famous ones like Brutality or many others I plan to review or have already reviewed (I mention Disincarnate, a group I believe has many elements in common with Brutality) started making Death Metal in 1993 with works that in sound and creativity are competitive with the early releases. The same bands then faded around 1996, when their Old School Death Metal no longer had much to say to the world.

This is the case with them, who released "In Mourning" in 1997 before disappearing permanently from the scene. All of this is just to tell you that even though "Screams Of Anguish" is later than many historical albums, you shouldn't have any prejudice against it; the fact that the final judgment is lower is not to be blamed on its late release.

The sound is still partially tied to the more violent Thrash, although for most of the album's duration it frees itself, remaining pure Death Metal; unlike all contemporary and previous works, "Screams Of Anguish" shows a preference for Mid Tempos. Attention, Mid Tempo does not mean this CD has anything Doom; Benediction, for example, have strong Doom veins, while Brutality, despite preferring never excessive tempos, never indulge so much in slowdowns. Their approach is rather a steady pace, but not less devastating for that.

The members prove to be good musicians, and in this regard, I would start by talking about the Drummer: he indeed shows traits that distinguish him from his colleagues in other bands.

The first thing that catches the ear is the fact that he always maintains decidedly slow tempos and reluctantly resorts to Blast Beat (which is akin to a Formula One driver who doesn't like to accelerate on straightaways). The second thing you notice is that when he does, he almost always uses a different Blast Beat than that used in Black Metal, known by experts as European Blast Beat, distinguished by the use of a single pedal. In the early Death works, this type of acceleration was still very popular, but he avoids it and prefers to use two pedals, which Death Metallers tended to avoid, and which would later evolve into Bomb Blast Beat, the Blast Beat of Brutal Death). Aside from this, the drummer prefers classic four-four time that, when needed, he enriches with some offbeat; note that, even though for most of the album he doesn't do anything special, there are some passages anything but trivial that demonstrate his actual technical ability, almost always left overly in the background. However, being an Old School Death album, it is not considered a grave issue.

Special, but not to my liking, is the performance of the guitarists, still stylistically very tied to the eighties. Screeches and solos in abundance make their performance even exaggerated and very (too) old style, highly appreciable by those who love early metal but decidedly coarse for anyone who has moved past the "eighties dances." Their playing style reminded me a lot of colleague James Murphy; to be frank, the two from Brutality mimic him quite a bit without having his technical skills and therefore resort to amazing antics that are more smoke than fire (continuous use of trills or vibrato).

The bassist is practically an ornament, audible in very few passages and never exceptionally so; this time there is little to blame the production, which resembles that of Thrash albums and is therefore quite clean. The vocals are the classic Old School Death Growl: decently clean (i.e., not cavernous) and very powerful, although a bit boring in the long run.

The songs are decently well-composed, although they are still a bit too traditionalist; they are certainly easy to understand and get stuck in your head right away, but the flip side is that the structures are already heard. Among the various songs, "Spirit World" (a typical instrumental from that stream between Thrash and Death where evocative acoustic riffs reign) and "Sympathy" (another instrumental with plenty of synth and vomit-inducing chants) stand out.

But in the end, what does this LP lack compared to others? It lacks personality and represents an extravagantly excessive tribute to the years in which the members of Brutality grew up; unique riffs are few, and even though it sounds very compact, the album becomes tiresome after a few tracks.

In any case, "Screams Of Anguish" is a fundamental album for any good Death Metaller; an album that, besides being a good product, is also one of the cornerstones of Death. As always, history has been unjust in not rewarding Brutality, who took giant steps with the subsequent "When The Skies Turn Black," but instead makes it rain thousands of dollars on the heads of the likes of Glen Benton (just a random name), but I think it's too late to complain about this. It's essential to know who was still placing flowers on the grave of Thrash and trying to keep it alive in a new, more extreme form.