Need to Control [Import]

Brutal Truth | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 13, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 7
• Format: Import
• Label: Earache UK
• ASIN: B000024FAN
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #390,515 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Collapse

2. Black Door Mine

3. Turn Face

4. Godplayer

5. I See Red

6. Ironlung

7. Bite the Hand

8. Ordinary Madness

9. Media Blitz

10. Judgement

11. Brain Trust

12. Choice of a New Generation

13. Mainliner

14. Displacement

15. Crawlspace

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Need to Control is the surprisingly rare death-metal CD that maneuvers around the genre's mounting pile of clichés. Its songs are bound in Kevin Sharp's guttural vocals and the blur of Rich Hoak's circular drumming, energized by Dan Lilker's rumbling bass, and given character by Gurn's odd guitar lines, but from there everything flies into new territory. The band has faith that anything it touches will turn to metal. Representative of the unconventional approach employed by the band, "Godplayer" includes didgeridoo. All the right sounds are applied to all the right causes, pressurizing metal until it seeps experimental noise at the seams. --Ian Christe

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GRINDCORE LEGENDS AT THEIR BEST, September 24, 2005

By 

John T. Walbridge IV - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Need to Control (Audio CD)

From the first 30 seconds of "Collapse", you know you are in for something special. Dissonant, sludgy, and downtuned riffing kick off one of the more unique opening tracks on any true Grindcore album. No blast beats, no 1000mph playing, just a powerful, noisy, and abrasive monster of an opener. From there it just gets better. Tracks like Godplayer, Choice of a New Generation, Back Door Mine, and I See Red, completely destroyed any previous notions of what grind could sound like. Brutal Truth, with this release, re-wrote the rules of the game and made an album that was not only brutal, but completely fresh and original.

If you are already a grind fan, buy this. If you are just getting into extreme metal, you need this even more!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars (you) Need To (not) Control (the urge to buy this recording), August 28, 2004

By 

Craig Allen Moore (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Need to Control (Audio CD)

Simply the best Brutal Truth record, hands down. While "Extreme Conditions..." was quite the eye opener with its sheer speed and precision, the band came into their own with this longplayer.
Earache at this point had an amazing stable built, along with the money to produce sounds that were unlike any other labels' endeavors. The days of "From Enslavement to Obliteration" by Napalm Death and "Reek of Putrefaction" by Carcass were long gone, and fans of the label could actually hear the blurred riffing, guttural evocations and blast beats of the "extreme" muscians they were putting out with an increasing degree of clarity. In fact, I would have to say one would be hard-pressed to find a better sounding mid-period grindcore record anywhere, and it even rivalled the nearly incomparable "Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious" by Carcass, which I consider the crown jewel of the Earache canon.
What sets this one apart is the inclusion of experimentalism by the band, with some songs being lightning fast from start to finish, some being slow grinders with fast parts or endings, some total dirges that never sped up, and some industrial and hardcore punk tinges peppered throughout. The guest spot by Mike Williams from Eyehategod on the nice Germs' cover also didn't hurt.
No longer completely under the shadow of Napalm's legacy, Brutal Truth took intensity to the next level while playing at any speed. The vocals were out there, as one might expect, but I must cite the drumming of Rich Hoak as the prime motivating factor here. Maybe microphones were shocked and confused with the advent of the blast, but I suppose one was found for this particular recording session that didn't waver a bit. Hoak's snare strokes are masterful and clearly represented here, propelling the already potent blend of string-fury and screaming-belching into a hyper-speed thrash festival, with pummeling counterpoints replete with deadly double bass and palm muting. They also threw in a couple of straight-up noise collages, which while being entirely overlong, were interesting in content and atmosphere. This is actually the only problem I have with the record, and that's rather minor, in my opinion.
It is rather unfortunate that they would not work with Earache any longer, as the next few recordings would be put out on a fledgling Relapse. Relapse was still somewhat in their infancy with the signing or Brutal Truth, and the production on the follow-up to this one, "Kill Trend Suicide," is positively laughable.
Buy this first, then "Extreme Conditions..." which is also phenomenal, then "Sounds of the Animal Kingdom" on Relapse, which is something of a return to form. They would never top this outing, though. Oh, check out the band Venomous Concept, which features the vocalist Kevin Sharp and some other metal luminaries if you are so inclined after hearing this monstrous album.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant., October 20, 2004

By 

sickeningore (massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Need to Control (Audio CD)

Brutal truth brings you that intelligent grind sound that doesn't let you down, one bit. I've been always supporting the guys from bt and in return...I been blessed with a great sound and no other band, in the genre can match the perfection of brutal truth's music. If you love pure grind? Then "need to control" should already be in your grind collection but if not? You dont know what grindcore means. All hail to brutal-truth!