Review: Toxikull – Under the Southern Light

Review by Sandre the Giant

Portugal’s Toxikull have been ripping up stages and shorelines with their classic 80s heavy/speed metal for a number of years now, and their third full length ‘Under the Southern Light’ is out this week through Dying Victims Productions. If you are a fan of classic Ozzy, Priest, Manowar, Dio, Saxon; basically the entire 80s in metal, you’re probably going to be a fan of this.

If you are ever unsure as to whether a modern heavy metal record is going to be good, generally you can tell by the opening track. ‘Night Shadows’ is an absolute screamer, opening like prime ‘Painkiller’-era Judas Priest, screams and galloping twin guitar melodies above pounding drums and driving bass. An instant favourite, and the rest of the album lives up to that beginning too. We’ve got the anthemic stomp of classic Dio in ‘Going Back Home’, the soaring power of the title track and the classic speed metal riffs of ‘Filhos do Metal’, and we even get the mandatory slower and more soulful stomp of the melodic powerhouse and Saxon-esque ‘Knights of Leather’. Toxikull have done their homework, copied the blueprints meticulously then regurgitated them with their own energetic thrust and enthusiasm. ‘They Are Falling’ has everything you’d expect a mid 80s European power metal classic to have, fist pumping title refrain, a ripping solo and some excellent melodic guitar work.

When you spend a lot of your time listening to darker and more ‘evil’ music than this, it is amazing what a classic heavy metal record that hits the spot will do to blow away those clouds. I spent more time than I’d care to admit in civilised society air guitaring my way through the likes of ‘Around the World’, and pumping my fist and nodding my head in my office. ‘Under the Southern Light’ is a riot of classic heavy metal love and worship, and you’d have to be a soulless bastard not to enjoy this.

https://www.facebook.com/toxikull

https://toxikull.bandcamp.com/music

https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/

Review: Saevus Finis – Facilis Descensus Averno

Review by Sandre the Giant

Well, we’re only a week or so into 2024 and we’ve got our first taste of what Transcending Obscurity have planned for us with the new Saevus Finis record, ‘Facilis Descensus Averno’. A dissonant and dark death metal album with black metal influences is promised, and with the label’s past record in this exact genre I’m expecting the work of this Portuguese trio to be exactly that. High hopes are in place…

The scalding riffs of ‘Scourge of Humanity’ open the record with a definitive, dark purpose; a passionate pounding of dissonant doomy death metal. Oh the alliteration! But it is what Saevus Finis have absolutely perfected immediately here; squalling Gorguts-esque riffs with splintering atonal melodies in the vein of Ulcerate, scattering dissonance and brutality all over tracks like ‘Thou Hast Destroyed Thyself’ and the punishing, haemorrhaging riffs of ‘Those Who Aid and Abet’. A guttural, primal fear rises up inside you during the miasmic ‘Corporeal Malfeasant’, really hitting home that not all death metal sounds like this, but a lot of these Transcending Obscurity records do. Carving a new precipice on the label’s cliff face of incredible bands, a Mount Deathmore if you will, except its all non-Euclidean geometry and Chthonic symbolism. There’s also plenty of unorthodox black metal influences here too, playing chaotic havoc with some of the nastiness in ‘Overrun by Pests’. Black metal has been playing with atonal chaos for years, and death metal is finally starting to catch up.

‘Facilis Descensus Averno’ is a triumph of pure, chaotic darkness. It is a term I come back to a lot while listening to this record; chaos. Saevus Finis make music that you have no idea where it is going, where the next note or scream is coming from. All that is for sure is that it will be from a place of malevolence and darkness. Transcending Obscurity have started with a blinder this year, and while it is far too early for AOTY chat, this will surely ride high on my list throughout the year.

https://www.facebook.com/realsaevusfinis

https://saevusfinis.bandcamp.com/album/facilis-descensus-averno

https://transcendingobscurity.bandcamp.com/

Review: Brain for the Masses – Monachopsis

Review by Sandre the Giant

Portugal’s Brain for the Masses have been around for a decade or so now, but ‘Monachopsis’ is actually their debut EP, following a single release back in 2014. It is out now self released, and looks to add themselves to an increasingly fertile Portuguese undergound. They play melodic death metal/groove metal so they’ve really got to stick the landing to stand out these days.

Opener ‘Bleak’ is an immediately thrashy melodeath number, galloping with riffs full of Soilwork and Unearth influences. There’s a little keyboard work in here too, adding the odd flourish underneath.It’s remarkably catchy, giving me real ‘this would be a pit igniter live’ vibes too. The guitar tone is nice and chunky, giving everything a nice groove metal weight to it. I’d say there was more of a Gothenburg influence than American metalcore/groove metal like Lamb of God or Machine Head. I say that as ‘Retribution’ has a little Robb Flynn about it at times in the vocals, but there’s a lot of early 00s Soilwork and In Flames in there too. ‘Seclusion’ has some nice acousitc work at the start, and is actually quite a measured, almost doomy piece in places. ‘To Be Alike’s probably the closest to something like Lamb of God, a bulldozing snarling riff machine, while closer ‘Stay Afloat’ gives us more than a little taste of gothic doom slipping into the riffs.

While Brain for the Masses may not set the world on fire with their debut here (everything seems just a little longer than it needed to be), it is a release that shows a lot of promise for the future. The band are obviously musically talented and have approached one of the more saturated metal genres with at least an idea of being different from everyone else. ‘Monachopsis’ has some killer riffs and songs on it, giving us atmosphere and even a bit of gloom, and if you’ve got money to bet on a sleeper band coming through in the next few years to do something big, Brain for the Masses isn’t a bad bet at all.

https://www.facebook.com/brainforthemasses

https://brainforthemasses.bandcamp.com/album/monachopsis

Review: Oak – Disintegrate

Review by Sandre the Giant

Originally published here: https://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/oak-disintegrate/

Portugal’s Oak, one of many with the same name on the Encyclopedia Metallum, are a band whose journey began on their superlative debut ‘Lone’ in 2019. An album of supremely morose and atmospheric funeral doom, it sent shockwaves through a Portuguese scene that has been slowly growing in stature over the years. Four interminably long years later, we have a follow up in ‘Disintegrate’, a single forty five minute track that has me salivating at the possibilities. It is out now through Season of Mist.

The delicate opening tones are crisp, drifting like cobwebs on an early morning breeze before a growing melancholic riff and melody lines builds into the main body of the song. Big growls split the harmony of the melody line with an addition of ferocious pain and suffering. That power fades off again, and we return to the cold clean guitar and echoing drum beat. This exchange of light and dark motifs is really nice; the quieter passages providing respite from Oak’s grand misery. Around the 15 minute mark the swooning, lurching doom crashes in with a melody line beneath that really hooks me in, and that swelling atmospheric feel continues on from here.

We reach the halfway mark in the record and it has flown past; a sign of a good album especially when it is only one or two songs for the full length. The naked, emotive clean notes that ring out in a void of silence here is magical, the fragility of it all before what becomes a stomping, atonal doom crush towards the final third of ‘Disintegrate’. A slow motion apocalypse of groaning, world rending riffs rumbling towards an inevitable downfall of society, humanity and life as we know it. The story of the record is of a giant who carries the weight of the world on his back, and at the end of his cycle will dissolve under the sun and leave behind only memories. You can feel this otherworldly figure looming over the darker parts of the track, as well as the rebirthing moments of the quieter tones.

How Oak have made this album so compelling I’ll never understand. Their artistic vision is beyond my comprehension but their talent is there for us all to see. ‘Disintegrate’ is a song that you can unpack listen by listen, each dynamic shift becoming more subtle, every switch in tone between light and dark more engrossing, each bleak melody more heartbreaking. ‘Disintegrate’ is a wonder and we should all be hopeful we get more of these guys in the near future.

https://www.facebook.com/OAKDOOM

https://oakdoom.bandcamp.com/album/disintegrate

https://shop.season-of-mist.com/

Review: Mallus Spiritus – Vultures of Despair

Review by Sandre the Giant

A reformation of an old Portugese black metal band, Mallus Spiritus are gracing us with a brand new record, ‘Vultures of Despair’, out now through Raging Planet Records. Now a two man effort instead of a trio, they aim to give us music that will please the progressives and purists alike. This sounds interesting…

The title track’s opening riff takes me straight back to the gloomy heydays of black metal in the early 90s. Rasping screams echo over icy melodic tremolo riffs, occasionally dipping into the weirdness of Atilla Csihar territory. In fact, you get a lot of eerie moments here that set a really dark scene. ‘Spectral Voices from a Chasmic Void’ injects a galloping pace into proceedings, but that sense of creeping fear still resides within when it slows down again. Mallus Spiritus definitely know how to keep the atmosphere dark and mysterious. ‘Shepherds of Deception’ has a sinister, almost industrial vibe at times with unsettling melodies swooning inside more standard black metal fare. The trad black approach of ‘Spiritus Decadentia’ and ‘Resume to Nothingness’ are fairly fun if not inspiring, but the blackened electro-minimalism of ‘Passageway’ is a different story. It leads into the rampant bleak dark of ‘Disengage the Parasite’ and then icy ‘Spiritual Deviations’, that at once plays up to genre tropes but manages to avoid boredom by being really engaging and catchy.

The problem with black metal in 2022 is that orthodoxy reigns supreme in this, more than any other genre. I can’t think of any others that try to pretend nothing since 1994 has happen with such fervour, despite the fact that some of the most vital voices in black metal are the ones who do try something different. Mallus Spiritus exist somewhere in the middle, mixing the more mundane of straightforward black metal with some genuinely dark and creepy moments to create a record that is laden with potential and just looking for that moment to release it fully. Give it a go though.

https://www.facebook.com/MallusSpiritus

https://ragingplanet.bandcamp.com/

Review: Visceral – The Tree of Venomous Fruit

Review by Sandre the Giant

A group made up of luminaries from many different bands, Visceral are a death metal project that are based in Portugal and is the work of mastermind Bruno K, featuring ideas and riffs that he couldn’t fit in other places. Featuring members of Gaerea, Oak, Enthroned and Grog, ‘The Tree of Venomous Fruit’ is a record that keeps death metal dark and heavy. It is out now through Raging Planet Records.

The uncomfortable industrial intro ” leads us into the bulldozing ‘Toxin’, an, ahem, visceral blaze of brutal death metal riffs and cavernous vocal rage. The songs are all fairly short but this isn’t a grindy album; everything here is thick and chunky with a nasty edge to it. ‘Fever Fruit’ rampages along with a real taste for blood, while the blistering ‘The Sight of Nothing’ is a masterclass in Asphyx-esque ferocity. But ‘And Bereft’ has a strange, almost uplifting background vibe to it at points, pummelling riffs and gargantuan vocals aside, and it swells to a vast conclusion that gives the likes of ‘Breathe the Ashes’ even more impetus to up the atmospheric game. Gaerea/Oak vocalist Guilherme Henriques is the star of the show; his versatile growl accompanies the guttural chug or the waspish thrust perfectly.

‘The Tree of Venomous Fruit’ is a dynamic beast; a modern death metal album filtered through a tendency to industrial samples and bleakness but never losing anything heavy about it. Crushing, endless waves of riffs brutalise you while the incredible vocal performance is a highlight. Visceral are an act that I hope come back together for many more journeys under this tattered banner of death.

https://www.facebook.com/visceraldeathmetal

https://visceraldeathmetal.bandcamp.com/

https://ragingplanet.bandcamp.com/album/visceral-the-tree-of-venomous-fruit

Review: Evillution – Elements of Genocide

Review by Sandre the Giant

You know when you’re just flicking through your music collection, not sure what you really want to listen to, and you come across something like Evillution’s debut full length ‘Elements of Genocide’, it just seems to hit the spot? Well, these Portuguese death/thrashers did that for me this morning, so I thought I’d dig a little deeper. It is out now through Firecum Records.

After the explosions, gunfire and sirens of the intro ‘Overtures of War’, the track that follows was the one that made me sit up and take notice in the first place. The title track tears from the trenches, galloping riffs of fire and shredding flesh with its scintillating attack. It reminds me quite a bit of Dew-Scented, a name that I hadn’t even thought of for years but seems an apt comparison. There’s obviously a bit of The Haunted influence there too, especially on the likes of ‘Their Land, Their Blood’. ‘State of Decay’ has a good slice of early Kreator in there, and that rabidity never overpowers the chug when it comes. You get the sens that Evillution are trying to pay tribute to Bolt Thrower and Sodom at the same time, and it definitely works on tracks like ‘Pain Division’ and the European-festival-pit igniting rampage of ‘Blast from the Past’.

There’s plenty of moments here where I can just turn my brain off and thrash til death, and sometimes that’s  good thing. Sometimes stuff doesn’t need to blow your mind with evolution or experimentation. Sometimes you just want a half hour of power, and Evillution will give you just that. ‘Elements of Genocide’ won’t mess with your head, it’ll just make you want to bang it.

https://www.facebook.com/Evillutionthrash/

https://evillutionthrash.bandcamp.com/album/attack-to-kill

https://www.firecum.com/

Review: Rageful – Ineptitude

Review by Sandre the Giant

The debut full length by Portuguese death metallers Rageful, ‘Ineptitude’, came out last September, so I’m pretty much a year late on it but at this point, I don’t even care anymore. There’s so much great metal out there, sometimes it takes a while to catch up! Rageful were formally known as Wall of Death until 2016, so they only seem new! ‘Ineptitude’ is out through the band’s Bandcamp.

‘Inhuman Greed’ kicks us off with some chunky, deaththrash riffing and a guttural roar. You’ve got a fairly traditional death metal approach here, but the low end chug belies a little bit of a brutal death metal influence in there too. The melodic leads of ‘Feed the Pigs’ is pretty cool, as is the rampaging ‘Clouds of Fear’. Nothing overstays its welcome either; Rageful have got themselves a succint style that doesn’t drag any ideas out further than they have to. They dive in, head first and get the pit going. ‘The Rage is Coming’ feels like it has the making for being their signature live opener, while ‘Membership to Self-Existence’ seems to give away a couple of hardcore influences in there too, maybe Madball?

‘Ineptitude’ is a pretty solid debut record for Rageful, and I hope they build on this base for their next release. They’ve got some great ideas, and I guarantee tracks like ‘Slavery Ways’ wil crush pits in the live arena, but they might need to do a bit more to stand out from the crowd. I like them though, so I hope they do, and ‘Ineptitude’ is a good start.

https://www.facebook.com/ragefulband/

https://rageful.bandcamp.com/

Review: Sepulcros – Vazio

Review by Sandre the Giant

The debut full length from Portugal’s Sepulcros, ‘Vazio’, looks to be another addition to Transcending Obscurity’s roster of epic death/doom titans. It is out now, and will no doubt bring to mind the likes of Winter, Mournful Congregation or Coffins.

After a creeping intro that sounds like something happening underground in ancient halls of stone, the massive title track leads us into a gloomy abyss. Somehow feeling very raw and emotionally draining, yet powerful and majestic, ‘Vazio’ is carved of weather worn monoliths of stone. Puncturing the interminable wall of doom is the odd section of potent blasting rage, which really accentuates the tortured pace that makes up the majority of what you’ll hear here. ‘Marcha Funebre’ is exactly that, a funeral march of guttural roars, tectonic riffs and an atmosphere absolutely sodden in misery. The double kick assault here is unholy, as is the shuddering, smothering tar of ‘Magno Caos’. This is my favourite track; a titanic beast of death and decay lumbering across a broken world. ‘Hecatombe’ plays with you to start; crisp clean notes drift in a melancholic breeze before building into a mighty epic death/doom piece for the ages.

‘Vazio’ sounds like it was recorded under an apocalypse sky, where ash and darkness reigns supreme. The suffocating weight of every guitar riff, every cavernous roar and every mournful melody is unbearably oppressive, and it feels like all light has been drained from the room. Deeply affecting and emotionally draining, Sepulcros are this year’s band to beat for the best record so far.

https://www.facebook.com/sepulcrosdoom

https://sepulcrosdoom.bandcamp.com

https://transcendingobscurity.bandcamp.com/

Review: Vøidwomb – Altars of Cosmic Devotion

Review by Sandre the Giant

The debut EP from Portugal’s newest black/death group Vøidwomb is called ‘Altars of Cosmic Devotion’ and it is out through Iron Bonehead on the 12th of February on CD and 12″ vinyl. With that kind of label behind you, you just know this is going to be crunchy.

With the riff building ‘Intro’ blowing into the majestic, old school death and doom ‘Summon of Utu-Shamash’, you know immediately that Vøidwomb mean business. The riffs are dense, the double kicks roll and crackle like the artillery fire of the damned, and the vocal roar is perfectly suited to what the band bring to the table. A defiantly old school death metal sound, when speed and weight could mix in equal amounts and not feel lost amongst each other, ‘Altars of Cosmic Devotion’ hits hard with some nice Behemothisms, as well as some fiery Deicide style riffing in ‘Descent to Ersetu’. There’s a fearsome honesty to this band’s work, and songs like ‘Architects of World Demise’ really capture their journey back through the mists of death metal’s time.

The title track brings us to a crushing close, where a bulldozing riff fights with unstoppable blastbeats and an uneasy sway to see which will knock you out first. It’s almost a dead heat by the end of ‘Altars of Cosmic Devotion’, and that is probably for the best. You’re going to want to be awake for listening again. Vøidwomb are heavy as fuck and with a debut like this they’ve launched themselves onto a pedestal where they can take the world of extremity by storm. Let’s hope they do. Excellent.

https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Voidwombband