Brutal Truth Extreme Conditions......

Brutal Truth 'Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses' (Earache, 1992)

Brutal Truth's debut is one of the best sounding grindcore records ever made. It has a death metal, very extreme thrash metal vibe (think Dark Angel's more Slayer than Slayer take on thrash) as well as the distorted bass, blast beats, political lyrics, screeching vocals and Discharge/Napalm Death wraparound title/collage cover. It ticks all the boxes for me as it is a definite metal record couched in all the trappings of punk and hardcore.

Produced by Colin Richardson, most famous at this time for working with Carcass (worshipped throughout this album, particularly on 'Regression/Progression'), who recreates his trademark tight and compressed sound to perfection without sacrificing the brutality that some of Scott Burns' Morrisound productions were stripped of, the album is heavy and has a definite UK Earache sound to it.

'Walking Corpse' is a masterpiece. It's the grindcore 'Angel of Death' and is exactly what Napalm Death should have strived to do when they took the death metal misstep, which I still love, 'Harmony Corruption'.

I have this on three different colours of vinyl, the original 1992 version in black, the limited to 100 'Oil Slick' and the slightly more common, 200 copies I think, 'Marijuana Green' (strangely, a lot of the bands who produced the most extreme music were big stoners). I was given the green version because the oil slick is badly warped, so that was nice of Earache, although I'm not sure what I'm meant to do with my ultra-limited version other than take photos of it.

Brutal Truth feature Danny Lilker on bass who has performed with so many bands it's exhausting to list them but to have played on the debut LPs by Anthrax, Nuclear Assault and Brutal Truth is a pretty incredible legacy in itself.

Unfortunately, I have never see Brutal Truth live. I missed them when they played in Glasgow with Macabre and Fear Factory which Pringle often reminds me about. I still can't remember what I was doing, but such is life. I then missed them when they played with Deicide in London because I was watching Scotland play Brazil in the opening game of the 1998 World Cup. I'd been to the venue and met Danny, who had a very 'manly aroma', but never made it back in time to see them play.

Brutal Truth were different to their UK contemporaries as they started with their most metal record then got gradually more hardcore and experimental, as evidenced by the techno and hip hop tinged 'Perpetual Conversion' EP included as a bonus on the 2010 rerelease, and I definitely grew weary of what seemed to be attempts to prove they were the most grindy of the grind bands. However, they split up and then reformed and are still going strong so I imagine I will see them eventually; now I'm a bit older and more mellow, just like them, I'm sure it will be a blast.

'Extreme Conditions....' is a great example of US grindcore which has only ever been topped by Terrorizer's 'World Downfall'. Believe me, that's substantial praise.

Peace