Brutality - Sea Of Ignorance

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Allow me to state that I am honored to review this album, but also a bit sad because in harsh reality, it was released a year and a half ago. Still, it’s never too late to praise something that’s good, right? The mighty Tampa, Florida, US-based BRUTALITY have come back in 2016, after exactly 20 years since their last full-length. It was shocking, and I followed them through the entire writing, recording and mixing process on the band’s social media sites. Who doesn’t remember instant classics such as their debut full-length “Screams of Anguish” released back in 1993 (after their EP “Hell on Earth” a year before that) or maybe my all time favorite “When the Sky Turns Black”, or even the critically bashed “In Mourning”.

All of those were amazing in their own ways, and now - I mean last year - the band has returned after exactly two decades with a brand new, eight-track album released via Repulsive Echo Records and it is called it “Sea of Ignorance”.

Although it isn’t technically their first comeback, since 2013 marked the release of their “Ruins of Humans” EP (which was also pretty good and I was a fan of it personally) but when we’re talking full-lengths, this is something that we’ve all been waiting for. The band dived their subjects into today’s socially accepted problems, such as TV, Religion and control of the masses like sheep - mostly lyrical themes that weren’t too characteristic of them in the 90’s, where it all Death Metal bands mostly used to sing about doom, death, destruction, and the apocalypse. This album has a grand total length of 39:41 minutes, a decent, artwork of a destroyed power plant with a ton of TVs hoarded on one place.

This is the work of some serious talent, from people that weren’t born yesterday and people that really know their instruments. The brutal riffs of Jay Fernandez as heard on the title-track “Sea of Ignorance”, the vocals of Scott Reigel - which are still beyond comprehension even to me - plus the bass lines of Jeff Acres, or the nasty old-school method drumming of Ruston Grosse - everything is done perfectly. The production is okay, considering we’re talking about a newbie label, nevertheless, massive respect should still be given to both the band members and the label owners for making such a cool collaboration. Though I would like to mention that BRUTALITY recently signed with Mighty Music, and signings mean what? More records, so fuck yeah! “48 to 52” is also a good song, but my favorite one except for the first one is also “Perpetual Resolution”, or the nice BATHORY cover (seventh track) “Shores in Flames”.

Overall this is a brutal comeback. The members are still conquering strongly and are showing newbie bands who’s the real boss here! If only I could I’d give them an eleven out of ten. Hail BRUTALITY! Hail the old-school relentless and fearless Death Metal force.

Songwriting: 10
Originality: 10
Memorability: 10
Production: 10