### Brute: Demo 2008

#### 02/12/08 || The Duff

Brute are a hardcore, thrash/death (the latter of this combo being mainly in the production) band that is more than a little dull. The vocalist is much like an aggressive Phil Anselmo, just very one-dimensional, mixing low-end, hardcore snarling with low-end guttural snarling; there’s some snarling going on on this record, maybe because some bands think the vocals make a large part of metal’s attack.

You won’t be surprised to discover, therefore, that the music is not up to much: three to four riffs a song, typical, bland breakdowns breaking up thrash onslaughts, death triplet chugs (the advent of mercilessly technical death metal has made the triplet riff hanging around the same note expediently redundant, but Brute remain unphased) and the occasional Deftones “wall-of-sound” strumming, except, this being a demo and all, the production doesn’t meet the requirements for delivering the riffs as such.

The plus, though, is that the production is pretty damn good; very dirty, heavy (not so much bass, but oh well), reminding me vaguely of the classic Swedish sound. Of course, the riffs don’t match up, coming from a cheap (and by this, I mean very cheap) Pantera rip-off band without the chops, musicianship or hooks. Only four tracks long, I would suggest Brute to throw in the towel at this point, but then, if it’s their passion, who gives a fuck? Just don’t give this your time and let ‘em do their thing – a punk/thrash/slamcore (I fucken despise this sub-genre, so maybe I’m not qualified to review this?) band with no attractive musical qualities.

- Information
- Released: 2008
- Website: Brute MySpace
- Band
- Hednar: vocals
- Erik: guitars
- Mats: guitars
- Jonzon: bass
- Petter: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Everybody loves a clown
- 02. First strike
- 03. Darling
- 04. Foot down