While only being recently formed in the last 4 years, the member credentials are pretty solid for this Brazilian quartet led by guitarist Jairo “Tormentor” Guedz, the former member of Sepultura in the early 80’s. Drummer Alexandre Oliveira, guitarist Marcelo Vasco and bassist/vocalist Alex Kafer also have a rather hefty list of past and current bands. Musically they are on the faster end of the thrash spectrum with gruff rather than growled vocals, which could have them touching on death metal but never being noisy enough for call completely into the category.

Their second album opens with the instrumental “Solve Et Coagula – Introduction” which certainly would not sound out of place being played either in a chapel or horror movie. It then fades straight into “Chapels Of The Unholy” which is fast and frenetically played with plenty of slower breakdowns to let the guitars build up their attack once more.

The slowly intensifying intro blasts into the main riff for “Dawn of Mephisto”, with a couple lead breaks for good measure to make the catchy chorus easy to sing along to.

Faster still is “Denied Divinity” where the drums and guitars’ driving rhythm are only matched by the excellent melody being played throughout.

The choppy guitars on “The Impostor King” work well with the harsh vocals, which definitely remind me of a band mentioned above and form that era to boot.

The lead break on “Faithless Requiem” is exactly what the song needs, as it doesn’t detract from the speed of the song and may actually amplify it to be fair.

The epic “Psalm 78 – God of Bizarre” starts off slow and broody with a melodic second guitar riff keeping things going over the heavier rhythm guitar and constant tom-tom rolls. Then all of a sudden everything stops and builds up once more until Alex comes in with the vocal roars and the pace steadies for the duration of the song.

“Terror Inheritance” picks up the pace considerably and is played with a vicious ferocity that is bound to get many a mosh pit going when played live.

The pseudo title track “The Grotesque” is filled with quick changes, both in pace and aggression with manic drum fills that drop into groove patterns matched by the guitars.

I wasn’t certain if “Blood Upon The Throne” was going to be another slow track owing to the way it commenced, however it built up nicely and while it has the feel that’s a lot slower than it is because of the vocal delivery, the drumming is rather frantic with the tremoloing guitars accompanying them.

The album ends with “Venomous Creed” which alternates from fast and aggressive to slow and heavy while always having a melodic element to the song.

(8/10 Marco Gaminara)

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https://almamater.bandcamp.com/album/a-mass-to-the-grotesque