It’s been over a quarter of a century since this Portuguese quartet crawled out of the mire and 21 years since they released their début and if this, their fourth album, is anything to go by, the certainly haven’t lost any speed or nastiness. This 14-track grindcore album is as fast and brutal as you’d expect from the song titles, but there is still subtle musicality littering the thing with unexpected gems that make it worth listening to. Even if it is just once.
“Revelation – Open Wound” is a slowly built layering of guitar and other sounds joined by some shouting on a distant megaphone. All very horror movie intro-esque.
Rolando Barros comes in with some drums as “Uterine Casket” kicks off and doesn’t seem to stop beating the living shit out of them for the remainder of the album. Alexandre Ribeiro’s bass solo is quickly rejoined by gruff growls of Pedro Pedra “Aion” and Ivo Martins’s guitars.
The low guttural vocals on “Savagery” are rather slow in comparison to the blistering pace of the guitar riff and kick pedals, giving the song 2 tempos that you can follow.
It’s probably because the songs are so short that they are able to pack as much of a punch as “Sterile Hermaphrodite” is able to, but it’s the rather impressive albeit ultra-short lead that has you listening out to see if it shall be repeated on “Sarco-Eso-Paghus” and Ivo does not disappoint.
I guess “Vortex of Bowelism” probably the album title in there somewhere and but the guitar lead here is rather slow and drawn out in comparison to the previous leads and the sheer speed of the song itself.
The slow cymbal bashing accompanied by the popping bass and chugging riff on “Cardiaxe” is quickly replaced by blasting and scathing strumming once the vocals wade into the fray and it doesn’t let up much for “A Scalpel Affair” but owing to there being a bit more of a bass groove to the song it has a completely different feel to it at the same time.
If you’ve ever wondered if there’s a predilection to watching the films the editor likes reviewing, then wonder no more cos it would appear there’s a “Gore Genome”, or Grog would have you believe.
“Gut Throne” is full of short sharp blasts before it gets into the flow of things again to race its way to the lavatory.
Possibly the most death metal song on the album, by virtue of the fact the lead lasted 20s rather than the usual 5s but then with a title like “…of Leeches, Vultures and Zombies” it was always going to be epic, no?
Alexandre’s snapping bass strings give “Flesh Beating Continuum” the song something to listen for in the background as the blasting and growling are assaulted by the vicious guitar riffs.
Pedro’s opening roar for “From Disease to Decease” has all sorts of anger and anguish in it, which he replaces with venom as he spits out the rest of the lyrics to the song.
As a complete contrast to the rest of the album “Katharsis – The Cortex of Doom and Left Hand Moon” is a slow plodding affair with deep growls and a laconic riff over a steady drum beat, before fading to spoken lyrics over some guitar sounds and a light tempo that ends leaving you with a minute of near silence over the odd background noise.
Nothing new here, but it’s well produced and extremely tight, but sadly it does eventually become a bit much after the 8th listen on a single day, which I’ve done for the last 4 days in a row.
(6/10 Marco Gaminara)
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