UMUR
"Sounds of the Animal Kingdom" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US grindcore act Brutal Truth. The album was released through Relapse Records in September 1997. The band´s first two albums were released through Earache Records, but "Sounds of the Animal Kingdom" is not their first release on Relapse Records after their label change, as they released the "Kill Trend Suicide" MCH/EP in 1996 through the new label. This would be their last studio album before they split-up the first time and a longer hiatus followed before they reunited in 2006.
Compared to "Need to Control (1993)", "Sounds of the Animal Kingdom" is a rather different sounding release, but if you´re familiar with "Kill Trend Suicide (1996)", the sound on "Sounds of the Animal Kingdom" isn´t quite as surprising. The tight precision and more clinical sound of "Need to Control (1993)" is replaced here by a more laid back, organic and muddy sounding version of Brutal Truth. I´d even say it´s psychadelic tinged at times ("Jemenez Cricket" is the best example of that). Imagine that! Psychadelic grindcore...
...but Brutal Truth were always boundary pushers, and none of their albums are just "straight" blast beat grindcore (although there are loads of blast beats in their music). While not all 22 tracks on the 74:14 minutes long album (the last almost 20 minutes of the album is just an annoying loop) stand out equally much, Brutal Truth are pretty good at varying pace and incorporating elements from other genres like psychadelic rock, industrial, and death metal to their grindcore style. This ensures that "Sounds of the Animal Kingdom" is an album that´s worth listening to again and again. It does overstay it´s welcome a bit though, and I would have prefered a 40 minutes long album, which I feel would have been a more suitable length for music this extreme.
The album is packed in an organic but also pretty muddy sound production, where the drums sometimes drown and it´s not always clear what´s being played. It has it´s charm but I do prefer the more clear and clinical sounding production on "Need to Control (1993)".
With "Sounds of the Animal Kingdom", Brutal Truth confirmed once again that they were not a stagnant act releasing the same album over and over again. They evolved and experimented with their sound and they still stand as one of the most innovative grindcore acts on the scene. Quality wise I prefer the predecessor, which I still feel is one of the most groundbreaking grindcore releases out there, but "Sounds of the Animal Kingdom" is also overall a quality release featuring a unique take on grindcore and despite a few flaws (it´s too long and the sound production is muddy) a 3.5 star (70%) rating is still deserved.