BRUTALITY — Sea of Ignorance (review)

BRUTALITY — Sea of Ignorance album cover

Album · 2016 · Death Metal

4/5 · 2016-05-17
UMUR

"Sea of Ignorance" is the 4th full-length studio album by US, Florida based death metal act Brutality. The album was released through Repulsive Echo Records in January 2016. Brutality split-up in 1998 after releasing three studio albums (the last one being "In Mourning" from 1997), so this is their comeback studio album. They did however release the "Ruins of Humans" EP in 2013. Only two members remain from the lineup who recorded "In Mourning (1997)", and only three from the lineup who recorded the "Ruins of Humans (2013)" EP, so needless to say there have been quite a few lineup changes.

During their original run Brutality was the arch typical Florida death metal act but maybe lacked that last original touch to their music to succeed and be mentioned among the greats of the genre. Few will probably dispute though that albums like "Screams of Anguish (1993)" and "When the Sky Turns Black (1994)" aren´t of a really high quality when it comes to early- to mid 90s US death metal. Brutality were always technically well playing, brutal, and their albums well produced.

"Sea of Ignorance" is slightly different from the three preceeding releases by Brutality. The high level technical playing is still there in abundance, and there is a good dose of brutality involved too, but "Sea of Ignorance" is by far the band´s most diverse release up until this point. One of the things the early releases didn´t provide so much was variation. That has changed on "Sea of Ignorance" which is a relatively varied death metal album. The vocals are still predominantly deep brutal growling, but there are some clean vocals on the cover of "Shores in Flames" by Bathory. The 11:14 minutes long track is an interesting choice for a cover, as it leaves only about 28 minutes of original material on the album, when you take the cover away. The remaining 7 tracks of original material are all well written and effective compositions though and "Shores in Flames" does work alright on the album too. In fact it´s a great and powerful cover.

As mentioned above Brutality still deliver brutal technical US death metal tracks on "Sea of Ignorance" like the title track and "Barbarically Beheaded", but tracks like "48 to 52" and "Tribute" point in other directions too, featuring more melodic playing and in the case of the latter, even a nod towards symphonic death metal. It´s hardly a very consistent album in terms of musical style or flow, and it´ll probably not suit everyone´s taste that Brutality throw curveballs at the listener throughout the album, but on the other hand it´s a bold move from the band experimenting with new ideas and trying to expand their established sound.

Despite the slightly disjointed nature of the release, "Sea of Ignorance" is still a high quality comeback album by Brutality. The musicianship is on a high level, the sound production professional, clear, and powerful, and the songwriting intriguing. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.