Photo Credit: Greta Gerstner
Brat – Social Grace
Prosthetic Records
8,0/10,0
Brief:
Straight out of the Crescent City, BRAT are set to release their forthcoming debut album, Social Grace, via Prosthetic Records on March 15. Since their 2021 inception, the New Orleans deathgrind / hardcore band’s journey to date has been one of blistering ascension both on the road and in-studio with relentless US touring and two head turning EP’s already under their belt. Enter 2024 and BRAT are ready to give extreme music the pink pill.
Between an intense live schedule over the last three years, which saw BRAT share the stage with the likes of Eyehategod, Cro-Mags and contemporaries in grind such as ACxDC and No/Mas, the band recorded Social Grace over the course of a year and a half at HighTower Recording studio (Thou, A Wilhelm Scream, Eyehategod). Recording songs in batches helped BRAT finetune and focus their songcraft in condensed bursts, resulting in a coalescence of death metal, thrash, and powerviolence brutality.
Social Grace follows extreme music’s well trodden themes of futility and distaste for humankind’s ruling classes throughout it’s 10 tracks, with the band’s reverence for psychological horror fiction and admiration for Stephen King genre classics evident on songs such as Hesitation Wound and Truncheon, as well as the title-track’s scathing rebuttal of aristocracy.
BRAT’s self-described barbiegrind / bimboviolence aesthetic is one of intentional dichotomy to their sound, with a keen focus to allow space and inclusivity for outsiders that shirks the traditional in favor of jubilant authenticity. Feral and ferocious in content and anti-purist in nature, BRAT’s Social Grace is a cataclysmically heavy party that everyone’s invited to.
Tracklist:
- Ego Death
- Hesitation Wound
- Slow Heat
- Truncheon
- Human Offense
- Rope Drag
- Blood Diamond
- Snifter
- Sugar Bastard
- Social Grace
Main Focus Tracks:
- Ego Death
- Slow Heat
- Blood Diamond
Other Recommended Tracks:
- Hesitation Wound
- Human Offense
- Snifter
- Social Grace
Line-Up:
Brenner Moate – Guitar
Liz Selfish – Vocals
Dustin Eagan – Drums
Ian Hennessey – Bass
Comments:
Social Grace is a good, energetic, technical record, revealing its fine qualities with each successive listen. It’s our pick for February’s best album!
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Selected Discography:
Social Grace – 2024