UMUR "In Mourning" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US, Tampa, Florida based death metal act Brutality. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in January 1997. Brutality were formed as far back as 1986 and released several demos before releasing their debut full-length studio album "Screams of Anguish (1993)". That makes them one of the original Florida death metal acts that helped spawn the Tampa scene that would explode in popularity in the early nineties.

The music on "In Mourning" pretty much continues down the same technically well played brutal death metal path that the band also went down on the two predecessors. Rhythmically varied, brutal yet intelligible growling, and an onslaught of brutal riffing and melodic guitar leads and themes (check out the closing track "Extinction" for an example of that). It´s still Suffocation and to a lesser degree early Gorguts that I´m reminded of, but "In Mourning" features a slightly more personal sound than the two predecessors do. It´s still nineties US death metal in a nutchell, but I find the music more catchy and memorable this time around.

The sound production is very well sounding and powerful, bringing out the best in the brutal tracks. It´s no surprise the album was recorded at the legendary Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida with a meaty and powerful sounding production like this. Everything is clear (but not polished) and audible in the mix. I especially enjoy how high Scott Reigel´s growls are placed in the mix and as a consequence of that how commanding they sound. Now that´s what I call death metal growling!

To my ears "In Mourning" is a step up from the two predecessors, which were both great albums, but lacked a bit of a personal sound to really compete with the best releases in the genre. "In Mourning" is close to being up there with the best though and I´d say a 4 star (80%) rating isn´t all wrong.