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Brutal Truth

End Time

Written by: PP on 11/10/2011 04:07:54

The previous Brutal Truth album "Evolution Through Revolution" from two years ago wasn't just one of the best grindcore albums to date. It was a forward-thinking album that demonstrated what is possible to do within the confines of grindcore as long as you're able to think outside of the box, and mark my words, it's an album that will be looked back to ten years from now as one of the most influential records in the genre. With "End Time", their sixth album, Brutal Truth continue to raise the bar for themselves and simultaneously for the genre as a whole with an ambitious plan of retaining all the addictive nonsensical chaos of traditional grindcore while pushing the envelope of what is possible even further than ever before by adding swirling groove, spacier soundscapes, a ton of tempo variation and a number of other tricks that would've been considered blasphemous just ten years ago in the grindcore circles. With "End Time", they've single-handedly taken the genre to a place where it's now fair to assess we've landed on our very first experimental grindcore album, or at least one that doesn't sound like a bloody mess from start to finish.

If that description scares you as a Brutal Truth fan, don't worry. "End Time" is a natural progression of "Evolution Through Revolution" in a way that takes all of the elements from the record into their respective extremes. For example, the discordant and disorganized chaos that was masterfully conducted into meaningful structures on "Evolution..." is there, in a more venomous and destructive way than before. In fact, it's fair to say that you haven't heard Brutal Truth this....uhm...brutal since their early 90s releases. Some tracks like "Small Talk" are insane displays of instrumental prowess and the power of dismal chaos can have on a listener. There's only one band who can write stuff like that, and that band is Brutal Truth, so if you were a fan before, rest assured you'll be a fan after this record as well.

At the same time, the band's penchant for writing three-minute grindcore songs has only increased. There are a number of tracks so experimental and organic in songwriting that I had to double-check I was still listening to the same record. "Addicted", for instance, contains more melody - the bright (yes, you read that correctly) guitars and the ferocious growls work together brilliantly - than you'll have heard on the last three grindcore albums you've heard put together. Elsewhere, Brutal Truth simply abandon the "trash our instruments as fast as we can and sound heavy as fuck" approach entirely and use tempo variation, slow buildups, contrast between thick roars and disgusting guttural growls, and ambient soundscapes together in a way that simply hasn't been done before in grindcore. But best of all, it still sounds undeniably like Brutal Truth, and simultaneously like no-one else in the genre.

But while the band can and should be rewarded for their continuous ambition to evolve the genre far outside of the tight confines of its textbook description, "Evolution Through Revolution" was such a monumentally strong album that, in its shadow, "End Time" feels less overwhelming in general. Songs like "Butcher", "Fuck Cancer" and others show the band at the top of their game, but on occasion, their desire to experiment goes a little too far at the cost of the accessible (relatively speaking) brutality the band is so revered for. It's a record that wants to be more than it is, while still leaving the rest of the genre in its shadow.

Download: Small Talk, Fuck Cancer, Addicted, Butcher
For the fans of: Kill The Client, Napalm Death, Carcass, Noisear, Phobia
Listen: Bandcamp

Release date 27.09.2011
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