Brutal Truth
's debut stands as one of the first full-length albums to take the prototypical
grindcore
of pre-'90s
Napalm Death
and integrate the sound into a collection of songs with enough variety to function well as a reasonably diverse album. The group obviously bring more than just
to the table on
Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses
, with some hints of noisy
hardcore punk
and slower forms of
heavy metal
. Most songs last a few minutes and move through a few shifts, peaking with small explosions of sound. The better songs stray from this fairly generic template, beginning with
"Birth of Ignorance,"
a song that takes growling vocals to new extremes. Here, vocalist
Kevin Sharpe
blows you back a bit with his guttural voice during the song's rather catchy chorus, which acts as a sort of call-and-response between the deep voice of
Sharpe
and the high-pitched screams of bassist
Dan Lilker
. Another song,
"Walking Corpse,"
integrates the banshee vocal explosions of
's
"You Suffer"
into an actual song, using this brief moment of apocalyptic intensity for a powerful chorus. Another standout song,
"Time,"
reverses the formula, slowing down the song's pace to a lumbering tempo for six minutes of slow, grinding sound and wonderfully demonic singing. And of course, there are the brief, ear-piercing explosions of
"Collateral Damage"
and
"Blockhead."
Though the successive album,
Need to Control
, stands as this New York band's best release,
remains one of the best
albums of the '90s, setting new precedents for the niche style. [
Earache
reissued
with bonus tracks, among them
's cover of
Black Sabbath
"Lord of This World."
] ~ Jason Birchmeier