Brutal Truth

The best grind band in history, New York’s Brutal Truth left behind a relatively small legacy, but who since has touched it? God damn no one, that’s who. The band began to dive into a more raw and hardcore sound with the Kill Trend Suicide EP in 1996. At the time eliciting a lot of head-scratching due to its paper-thin production sound (Billy Anderson, but you’d never guess), it’s nonetheless a wildly energetic and enjoyable affair. With Sounds, the band created their masterpiece. The only time a grindcore disc has been both epic and enjoyable, the band stretched their wings in all directions, with perfect results. Experimental noise, weird cover tunes (although the bonus track on the vinyl version, a cover of Nausea’s "Cybergod,” is amiss here), short grinders, hardcore tunes, and longer metal songs all came together perfectly. While the original CD had a 21-minute blasting loop known as "Prey,” and the vinyl ended with a locked groove playing the same blast, this finds Scott Hull (Agoraphobic Nosebleed) instead giving us a new, 40-second mix of "Prey.” This remastered reissue features a nice introduction from Choosing Death author Albert Mudrian and brief notes from three of the four BT guys. But the splash sticker promises "extensive, exhaustive” liner notes, which I’m not seeing. There is the video clip for "Dead Smart,” but some rare material in the form of a second disc or DVD would have been a nice addition.