Customer Reviews

Need to Control

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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!

I've been around long enough to hear plenty of heavy music, and most of it has been too weak or too cheesy. There are a few bands who stand out though, and BRUTAL TRUTH is one of them. This album is probably one of the hardest in a long time--without any cheese--they dont need pentagrams and upside down crosses to get people's attention. They just come out hard and make ears bleed. This record has plenty of blast beats, but also grinds heavy....if you're not hip to it..get up with it.....

although i am not a grind fan i love brutal truth, maybe because they were always more than just grind. they mixed hardcore and death metal into it too, but for the most part they're grind. this cd starts out with collapse, a very slow and catchy song, and then goes into black door mine, a very fast passed grind song, and most of the album is like that. there are a few more experimental, ambient songs like iron lung, crawl space, and ordinary madness. and the germs cover with michal williams is cool too. from start to finish this is the best from this now dismembered band

What Nile is to some fans of Death Metal, Brutal Truth is to grindcore. They are hands down my idols, and this cd brings out the best of it. Not a single track will force you to skip it, and every song will make you want to jump up and thrash every single one of your possessions. And although sometimes the lyrics are indecipherable, they are excellently written, as shown in the cd booklet. Get this cd.

Amazing Album, very technical, starts off with a slow song, then alternates 1-3 fast songs, then slow ones... one of the top 3 best grindcore albums I've heard, mainly because it's so precise.. this is how suffocation would play if they played grind!!!
This isnt like early napalm death.. where the band didnt have the ability to play at the speed to control their songs!! Just like the title these guys are about TOTAL CONTROL.... fast, precise and uncompromisingly brutal...

The wonderfully clear production makes this album stick out from the usually cruddily produced grind-stuff.
My favorite's "Brain Trust" particularly at the start where the drums drop out and just the fast grind guitar and menacing vocal growl before the hyperspeed drums blast in. The Vocals are fairly indecipherable of course, although the lyrics are excellent radical politics stuff.
Buy this and play it on some good speakers (+ subwoofer)if you need to cause structural damage to your place of residence.
If you like this also get Terrorizer's "World Downfall" and Napalm Death's new one - "Enemy of the Music Business":-another worthy contender for best grindcore album ever.

The first song I ever heard by Brutal Truth was: "Godplayer." I was instantly hooked. I picked up the cd 'Kill trend Suicide' not to long ago from a local music pwn shop. I listend and thought the lyrics and snappy drum blasts were amazing(im a huge fan of berzerker) I than began thinking to myself, how can this band not have a gore theme to them. I really got into them more because it was a very fresh style. I just got 'Need to Control' and wow, I am HOOKED. I am into industrial music alot and i thought it was amazing how they took something like Dillinger Escape Plan and fused it together with something like Godflesh. The lyrics, once again were amazing. The only reason this cd got a 4 though, is because on just about every song it seemed like it was missing something, and im not really sure what, but a great cd nontheless.

my introduction to grindcore was with napalm death's 'fear,emptiness, dispair' and that made me approach anything ending with "core", with extreme caution. ultimately, curiosity made me check
bands like Bolt Thrower, repulsion, Carcass, Cianide and brutal truth.

Need to Control is one true oddity in that style: the vocals are done black metal style and the guitars sound like razors but with enough volume and thickness to distinguish them from the buzzsaw, lo-fi black metal guitar sound of the early 90's. the production is highly professional with instruments, vocals and noise distinct from each other yet perfectly blending into a unified whole.

content-wise, this album still adopts a punk structure, with short, ferocious compositions that still manage to avoid the linearity of punk, thanks to tasteful variations in the drumming and guitar rhythms: despite the shortness of the songs, they unveil a surprising amount of breaks and speed change to keep the listener absorbed and interested. unlike most other grindcore, this album never lapses into background noise territory at any time. as opposed to their previous album, Need To Control sheds the linear drumming and guitar patterns typical of punk in favor of a new re-interpretation of this music. massive use of noise is used to great effect and clicks right into place, giving the songs a depth that engulfs the listener. this is extremely technical and an innovative take on fusing punk and death metal, not just in musicianship but also by not conforming to the standard structure of the subgenre.
a must in your extreme metal library.

This album came out in 94 and its still as fast and uncontrolable as many of todays grind-gods. It takes a while to get into and some tracks are a bit hit or miss (or too long) but on this album there is one of the best grindcore songs written. Track 12 weighs in at just under 2 minutes and is a schizo, claustrophobic, brutal punky mix of inhuman proportions. Just check it out. Trks 13, 10 and 5 also don't dissapoint.

This album is out under the great Earache records but their most recent sampler contained some very nu-metal-ish bands. Not Good!