SPREAD EAGLE – The Brutal Divine

vote
7.0

• Bands:
  SPREAD EAGLE
• Duration: 00:40:02
• Available from: 12/06/2026
• Label:

• Frontiers

“The Brutal Divine” is the title that marks the return to the track of Spread Eagle, a band that debuted in 1990 with a beautiful homonymous album of vibrant hard rock full of groove, and then revived 'only' in 2019 with the good “Subway To The Stars” (in between also the second album, “Open To The Public”, from 1992).
Things don't change much in the ten new tracks we heard, except for a more modern production; the riffs are powerful and in general the barometer that marks the hard rock charge exploding from the speakers always remains at high levels – and so, right from the start we can enjoy a compact, rough and powerful album.

Ray West is a singer who seems born to interpret this sound and his companions support his voice greatly: guitarist Gianmaria 'Jommy' Puledda inserts sharp riffs and explosive solos, while the rhythmic session – with Rob De Luca on bass and Rik De Luca on drums (quite evident some roots linked to our beautiful country in this band!) – constantly strives to give depth to the sound.
In a genre where it is certainly not an easy task to sound fresh, what we appreciated in some of Spread Eagle's compositions is the ability to be dynamic even within the same song: “Flat Earth Vultures”, for example, opens the listening decisively, but presents variations on the theme that are greatly appreciated, with more reflective and emotional passages alternating with almost violent bursts of hard rock.
Other pieces are more classic and direct, such as “Street Noise”, which seems to have been written with the intention of representing that street sound typical of the Seventies and Eighties, where the guitars become rough like the asphalt of New York, the city where the quartet comes from.
“Gunflower” doesn't stop for a moment and hits without hesitation like a right right in the face, a powerful rock'n'roll with a raw and furious impact that live – a dimension where the American group knows how to give the best of itself – will make every enthusiast agitate, while the fiery “Jail Rat” enhances the rock/punk influences, rough and at the same time rigorous and powerful.

The more classic groove continues with “Pushed To The Limit” first and then “Inside A Shrunken Head”, songs that go straight and have a good impact but which also sound quite canonical.
In the long run this is also the least exciting aspect of listening, i.e. the presence along the tracklist of some tracks that are a little too linear even if what stands out among them is the more modern and dark touch, which almost embraces that alternative metal of Alter Bridge and Alice In Chains, of the melancholic “Ant Farm”, thanks to its muddy and penetrating riffs and the painful and rough interpretation of Ray West.
A direct and rough album, which probably doesn't contain any highlights to remember in the years to come but which, without looking anyone in the face, only thinks about exploding a load of bloody hard rock from the speakers.