Album of the Month: Brutality Will Prevail – Scatter the Ashes

Hardcore lives in South-Wales, at least if we are to believe Brutality Will Prevail, who are releasing their third full-length Scatter the Ashes on November 12^th through Purgatory Records.

Where their previous full-length Root of All Evil was still a straight-up hardcore album, their new release features more musical variation. Album opener ‘Life Lines’ sounds almost country with a little bit of southern rock attached. It is fully instrumental and fairly slow, in sharp contrast to the rest of the album, as is made clear by the last few bars of the song, where the distorted guitars start to come through.

From ‘Sins of Commitment’ onwards, the band provides the listener with the musical onslaught that they are known for. But even then, there is something different. The second track has a very heavy-metal vibe to it, especially in the second part of the song, where Ajay Jones’ vocals are complete absent, giving room for the rest of the band to show what they have in store.

‘Casket,’ ‘Second Sight,’ and ‘1348’ give this album the true hardcore feel. All three are thunderous tracks, reminiscent of bands such as Hatebreed, Broken Teeth and, at times, Basement. Jones carries the music like no other, but is certainly strengthened by the band’s musical capabilities. ‘Second Sight’ has one of the best breakdowns on the album and will definitely be one for the live shows.

Single ‘The Path’ sees Jones take a bit more of a background role, giving the band their much-deserved moment in the spotlight as well. It is by no means the strongest piece on the album, but it is the easiest to listen to.

‘Hallucination’ brings back the musical tones from the intro, acting as an intermezzo and introducing the final three songs of the album. The band could have chosen not to include this track on the album as it adds very little to the overall feeling.

The final third of the album kicks off with ‘Fallen Apart,’ a song on which Jones sounds very much like Liam Cormier of Cancer Bats, as does the rest of the band. It could have easily fit on Hail Destroyer.

‘Twisting Tongues’ and title-track ‘Scatter the Ashes’ close off the album, with the former being very similar to the rest of the album, while ‘Scatter the Ashes’ is a very down-tempo track with clean vocals by Jones, a very clean-sounding guitar intro, with the only hint of hardcore coming in the middle of the track, but even then it sounds more like a heavy rock song than anything else.

With Scatter the Ashes, Brutality Will Prevail have proven solid growth and the band’s DIY spirit of self-releasing albums has carried them far. This is one for the books.

Track list – Scatter the Ashes