BRAT – Social Grace
Release Date: 15th March 2024
Label: Prosthetic Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Grindcore, Thrash, Hardcore, Crust Punk, Powerviolence, Sludge.
FFO: Full of Hell, Napalm Death, Escuela Grind, Sanguisugabogg, Power Trip, early Carcass Brutal Truth, Eyehategod.
Review By: Rick Farley
The blending of swampy death metal, thrash metal and grindy hardcore come together to form a refreshing, but vicious brew of steam-rolling violence. New Orleans self-proclaimed barbiegrind/bimboviolence band, BRAT is about to drop their debut album Social Grace March 15th on Prosthetic records. Full disclaimer, this record is fun and ferociously ugly, so don’t be expecting elegant fucking words here.
Since their 2021 inception, BRAT has been on a steady incline of deserving buzz. Relentless U.S. touring and two very well received EP’s, 2021’s Mean is What we Aim for and 2022’s Grime Boss skyrocketed the band to the short list of bands to watch out for. Both EPs are choked full of grinding chunky heaviness with hardcore punk aggression. Often clumped solely into the grindcore genre, which is not exactly how the band sounds. It most definitely at the heart is grindcore, but personally, in this case extreme metal is about the only true way to describe it. It is fucking heavy, like straight from the swamps of Louisiana heavy, brutal breakdowns full of stompy guitars and sludgy noise. It is fast, thrashy, punky and belligerent. It’s as if an old school New York hardcore band moved to New Orleans, formed a Florida death metal band, and decided to cover early Brutal Truth. In a few words, it’s really fucking nasty. Fast southern swagger that sounds pissed and slightly deranged.
Before we move on though, it is worth pointing out that although the band shirks the traditional aesthetics of its labelled genre, it does adopt one trope that is at least for me a total bummer. Social Grace marked as a full length is kind of misleading, it is barely twenty minutes long and while in those twenty minutes it absolutely crushes everything in sight, it is still only twenty minutes long. I do not know how the genre got to this point exactly, but in the history of grind, there is a rather large number of legendary albums that are at least thirty minutes or more. With that said though, Social Grace is a must-hear for anyone that likes their metal, blistering, heavy and grimy, and truthfully the fact that I rated this so high should tell you how fucking ridiculously impressive this is.
Built for and known for their energetic live setting complete with multiple samples from sugary pop music, BRAT comprises of Liz Selfish (vocals) who’s throaty growl sounds truly anguished, is grating on the ears in the best possible way. Rope Drag is a notable example, her course voice sounds like she’s wounded – it’s fucking brutal. Brenner Moate’s guitar riffs are catchy, noisy, groovy, and plain gross. One listen to the breakdown in Human Offense and shit is about to get violent. The punishing rhythm section is as solid as a seven-ton wrecking ball, bringing slinky, beefy basslines from Ian Hennessey on Hesitation Wound and face smashing drums on Truncheon from Dustin Eagan. Every track is as good as the last. Not a second is wasted on Social Grace, it is all scorching stank face and hooks from hell, there is no way you are not headbanging and high kicking. Believe the hype. 
(4.5 / 5)
