UMUR
"Antecedent Offerings" is an EP release by US, Florida based death metal act Brutality. The EP was released through Ceremonial Records in October 2018. It follows the release of Brutality´s fourth full-length studio album "Sea of Ignorance" (released through Repulsive Echo Records in January 2016). There´s been one lineup change since the last release as drummer Ruston Grosse has been replaced by Ron Parmer.
"Antecedent Offerings" features two tracks and a total playing time of 11:26 minutes. Both tracks are re-recordings of tracks originally featured on Brutality´s debut- and sophomore full-length studio albums "Screams of Anguish" (1993) and "When the Sky Turns Black" (1994). Both "Crushed" and "Artistic Butchery" are brutal, heavy, and effective US death metal tracks, and these re-recordings are powerful and very true to the originals...and therein lies a bit of a problem. The original recordings were both well performed and very well produced, giving Brutality very few reasons for releasing these re-recordings. It´s not comparable to Suffocation re-recording tracks from "Breeding the Spawn" (1993), which by the majority of their fans are seen as a badly produced album.
"Antecedent Offerings" is a well produced release, featuring a heavy, sharp, and detailed sound production, which suits the material well. so there´s no question that this is a quality release...it´s just a bit redundant if you already own the two studio albums where the tracks are culled from, and personally I´d much rather listen to the originals. Still the overall quality of "Antecedent Offerings" still warrants a 3.5 star (70%) rating.