We dive again into the industrial multiplexes of Belo Horizonte and adulate the sadistic roar of the appropriately named Wagner Antichrist and Gerald Incubus, whose musical inventions did not stop with the blasphemous “INRI”, which defined the next decades of black metal. While the sophomore offering “Rotting” approached pure alcohol delirium in chaos and unsound production, yet containing both satire and atmospheric black metal in the form of “Sex, Drinks & Metal” and “Nightmare” respectively, “The Laws of Scourge” remains the most musically intact, fully developed and self-confident Sarcófago full-length album. As if the Finnish hardcore LP’s had been traded for German speed and death metal, themes of paranoia and divided, schizoid personality afflict this art while the compositions are architected upon cold, rhythmic, needle-sharp riffs occasionally enhanced by hyperdramatic, even cheesy, keyboards and concluded by Wagner’s desperate screams. Much in the vein of “Terrible Certainty” era Kreator, the old school metal patterns ride on a stream of militaristic, aggressive drumming that spaces the tension between the passages of hysteric stagediving metal too concretely energized to fully fit into the confines of shadowy underground death worship at this point, but too aware of causes and effects to simply become another Headbanger’s Ball “thrash” marketing item. A version of the classic “The Black Vomit” is included almost as if on purpose to demonstrate the technical differences between various approaches and strains into metal art, a dimensional revolving swastika whose arms are hardcore, speed metal, death metal and black metal – it’s unnecessary to determine in what ways exactly this album was worse than “INRI”, because the beautiful and terrifying moods on offer make “The Laws of Scourge” unique and indispensable as well.
Filed under: Death Metal Album of the Week — Tags: Black Metal, Brazilian Death Metal, Death Metal, Hardcore, Speed Metal, Thrash, War Metal — Devamitra @ April 25, 2010 12:31 — Comments (1)
[...] melodies and the same chugging, rough death metal approach one heard in the underrated “The Laws of Scourge“. We have two bands here, Lou Cyfer going on to record the capable but not as good [...]
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