Brazillian black metal... But this is closer to the Southern European sounding ones than the neanderthals who wear the Sarcofago t-shirts. I often relate the first example to cheesy third-class Rotting Christ-clones (not that there's anything wrong with Rotting Christ) from third world countries, but Murder Rape turned out to be quite a brilliant exception. Their concept of black metal is down/mid-tempo driven NWOBHM-like metal with earth-shattering growls and ultra-satanic context, somewhat similar to their more mediocre country mates Amen Corner and they fucking rock!! I FUCKING WORSHIP THE GUITARS!!! You can't hear this very often in black metal! This corpse-painted guy Ipsissimus put out some really neat lead guitar works like a graduate from the Yngwie Malmsteen school of neo-classical masturbations!!! This guy also knows how to make dark, angry rhythms which goes equally well with the ultra-tight drummings (comes installed with the mandatory double pedals) and it doesn't punish you with lightning blasphemy like many bands did. Instead, it breaks your neck torturously with its steady sinister pacings that drags your body towards the beckoning of Satan. For lovers of atmosphere, you also get a decent dose of keyboards thrown in, quite differently from their "northern" brothers, obviously. "Goat Worshippers" starts up with some melodic sections somewhere along the line of slower ballads from Nevermore and Angra and as the more beautiful portion of the music fades, satanic hell break loose with EXTREME SATANIC FILTHS like a primitive Poison (GER)! The amount of dirt and perversion this mid-tempo track generates can drown the whole of Jerusalem! The rest of the tracks somehow revolve around the same formula, with the exception of the instrumental epic "Cries from the Abyss", consisting of three chapters of varied colours and excellent musical mastery. All the extremely well done composition, execution and the nifty killer twin XY lead guitars is very convincing for these rare gems; black metal virtuoso??? If you like dark black metal music that compromises the "Nordic" bore, this is your valid salvation, or perhaps for the sake of quality alone.

© 2000 vasp necrogoat