by Mike DaRonco
A death-metal album that doesn't have any satanic references? Nothing about slaughter, gore, guts, killings and mystical dark evil? Yes, there is such a thing, believe it or not. Thankfully, there are bands out there like Brutal Truth, who prove that death metal can still have brains. And it's not just the fact that Sounds of the Animal Kingdom features a grim but realistic perspective on our eventual apocalypse; the music is more structured and compounded than Cannibal Corpse will ever be. Each track blazes a million miles per second, and not even the haunting, seven-minute &Blue World& offers a breather. A very brutal release indeed, and there's no doubt that the drummer's hands must have calluses the size of basketballs.