Brutal Truth
Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses (1990)
eatdogs
Ex-Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, and Stormtroopers of Death bass
guitarist Dan Lilker formed Brutal Truth in 1990. They were one of America’s best
Grindcore acts and arguably released the best Grindcore album of all time, Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses.
The band became well known in the American underground metal
scenes. Their live shows were spastic and left many in shock and awe as they
lay witness to the pummeling ferocity of the band. Drummer Scott Lewis was a
beast behind his kit and became known for pioneering the Hyper Blast drumming
style which Crytopsy drummer Flo Mounier made popular later on.
Extreme Conditions…
is the debut album by Brutal Truth and it has become legendary in the scene. Just
like Napalm Death’s Scum or later
albums such as The Inalienable Dreamless
by Discordance Axis and Inhale/Exhale
by Nasum, Extreme Conditions… laid
the groundwork for many acts to follow and to this day there is always something
being carried along from band to band that owes a debt back to Brutal Truth.
For a Grindcore album, it is quite lengthy going on over 45
minutes with about 15 tracks, but not all songs are too long. “Collateral
Damage” is the shortest coming in at about 0:04 seconds (*Once the Guinness World Record for “Shortest Music Video”*). Second
track “Birth of Ignorance” is a grower and trots along like a T-rex ready to
eat its prey. Once the guitars of Brent "Gurn" McCarty start
sharpening and shredding you know they mean business. Lilker’s bass is also
front and center on the album mixing in well with Lewis’s ferocious drumming,
but the glue holding it all together is vocalist “belcher” Kevin Sharp. He is
no Seth Putnam or Chris Barnes and that is a good thing! His growling and shrieks
are top notch and he even throws in a bit of Hardcore Punk vocal style by way
of classic acts like Repulsion and Siege.
First song I ever heard from this band was “Walking Corpse”
and to this day, it is still my favorite. I even tried to get my wedding dj to
sneak it in during the reception dinner but he chose to help keep me from being
in the doghouse for a year by not playing it and instead played that one Fugazi
track I asked for (Thanks Micah…).
Lyric wise, this album sets itself apart from the rest and
is mainly political, which is the type of Grindcore I like. If I wanted to
listen to the gory stuff, I could find that elsewhere easily. Funny to say, but
Gridcore with “substance” is nice. The album art is also striking with its many
pictures of worldly chaos and icons. You can get an idea from just looking at the
cover as to what this will be like. I like it when metal bands actually try
hard to make interesting artwork for their albums and not just some blood
soaked body or charcoal pastel landscapes with unreadable bands names to invoke
a certain type of mood.
Some other great tracks to check out are “H.O.P.E.” with its
driving force, “Stench of Profit” for those glorious blasts beats, and “Time”
for its chugging length and epic heaviness. Overall though the album is quite
the showpiece and a solid contained unit of ferocity and anger exploding like
an atom bomb once it gets started.
Extreme
Conditions Demand Extreme Responses
came out 27 years ago and since then it has only gotten better like fine wine.
Here is another Metal 101 album you need to hear, so go dig it!