I have to admit, I completely stopped caring about Brutal Truth after Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses, and didn’t shed a tear when the band called it quits. Since that time Kevin Sharpe ruined Damaged, Danny Lilker has started, revived and joined as many bands as possible, Brent McCarty… I have no idea what he’s doing, he may be dead in a ditch for all I know, but I do know that drummer Rich Hoak went on to form Total Fucking Destruction. Total Fucking Destruction’s debut Compact Disc Version 1.0 is a compilation of demo, rehearsal and live material collected over a period of a year and a half from January 2000 until July 2001 completely remastered by Scott Hull. As I didn’t care much for Hoak-era Brutal Truth, and didn’t care for Exit-13, I felt no urge to look for this stuff before, but since Bones Brigade Records decided to send this my way, I figured the least I could do was check it out. The first 9 tracks are from a rehearsal recording dubbed, TFD Version 3.0beta Non-Demo, recorded in May 2001 and clocks in at just over 11 minutes. The music on these tracks is catchy old school punk-flavored grindcore with the fast choppy beats Hoak is renown for and a varied tri–vocal assault. The main vocals are reminiscent of the distorted vocals of Tom Araya on Slayer’s punk tribute Undisputed Attitude (an album I openly admit to being a big fan of), with a deep booming snarl and high pitched shriek in the background. The music is fast, furious and super catchy and worthy of air guitaring, wind milling and necrothrashing and includes a great cover of D.R.I.’s "Yes Ma’am". The next 11 tracks are from TFD Demo Version 2.0 Grind Over Europe Edition recorded and mixed in the fall of 2000 and is much different than the aforementioned tracks. There’s a lot of weird shit going on with this material, starting with "Goatlord 2001", a strange collection of instruments just being really noisy all at the same time, with no real purpose. The remaining material continues with the catchy punk-grind theme with an infusion of black metal and rock, with some raspy black metal vocals added for good measure. The songs are fast and furious, and yet, strangely, production-wise sounds much much worse than the rehearsal recordings. There are a few guest appearances on these tracks, including Kaz of Japan’s D-River playing drums on the weird intro track, and Balth (aka Danny Lilker) contributing vocals on "Chromatic Blackness", though I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, since he kinda sounds like he’s coughing up a fur ball. The next 12 tracks are from the band’s first demo TFD Demo 2000 Version 1.0, which has the worst production of all, with the entire recording sounding like it was recorded by 14 year olds in the garage while their parents were away for the weekend. The musical approach is basically the same, with some more whiny punk vocals thrown into the mix. While the production is god awful and some of the vocals are really annoying but the music itself is really strong and entertaining. The final 8 tracks were recorded live at The Balcony in Philadelphia in July of 2001, which literally sounds like it was recorded on a tape deck from the balcony. There’s a lot of silly banter with the audience and the main vocals sound ultra annoying, but the overall set sounds decent, though you could tell there were many fuckups throughout, which is to be expected of live recordings. Overall, I have to admit my expectations for this album were really low, but Total Fucking Destruction surprised me by not sucking, in fact, the music they’ve written is actually quite good. I think if they were to enter a studio and record a proper album, it’d be absolutely worthwhile. That said, I don’t know if the CD is a worthwhile purchase, as basically all of the material is available online for free through the band’s website, however, only at 128kbps mp3s, so if you’re a fan of the demo material and want a better sounding copy with extra tracks, Compact Disc Version 1.0 is definitely a worthy purchase. My only complaint is the vast difference in production and sound, I wish everything sounded as good and clear as the rehearsal recordings. At the very least, it’s definitely worth checking out. Written By: Teufel