Founded in 1999, Scalpo is a brazilian Crossover Thrash Metal band from the capital of the state of Acre. They started as a Hardcore Punk band heavily influenced by bands like Ratos de Porão and Cólera, but as the time passed, they started to get more influences from Death and Thrash Metal, and since 2004 the band got all over the Crossover Thrash Metal outfit.
Since then, the band tried recording theur songs multiple times without success, but finally in 2019 the aand started the pre-production processe to record some songs and finally in this year of 2024, the band finally recorded their first EP called "No Fear".
vocalist Moisés Lima
I saw some early recordings of the band playing at some festivals and it's clear that the band evolved a lot in terms of technique, pretty much breaking the barrier of Crossover Thrash and going straight to Death/Thrash Metal.
drummer João Paulus
The band breaks their early Punk attitude using some mid tempo melodies but they are still kicking around with some bonebreaking Thrash Metal right here. It sounds like there are some influences of Torture Squad and Sepultura.
guitarrist Jardel Costa
There isn't much to talk about the production right here, The guitars are all around, tight drums, aggressive vocal and the clanky bass which does not sound too buried in the mix, it's pretty apparent, like in the song "Pseudo Coletividade". The thrash-choirs could sound a little bit louder on the mix, but it's still on point.
The guitars it's probably the most important part around the song development in this album, the songs were re-written with a lot more of riffing, with a lot of breaks and mid tempo grooves. Back in the day they where much more like Hardcore Punk riffing.
20 minutes of pure Thrash Metal Ravage, my favorites here are "Pseudo Coletividade", "Chaos Protagonist" and "Vamos Quebrar". If you are a fan of Torture Squad, make sure you will check this EP.
Straight from the city of Kyev in Ukraine, the band Arhat released in this 2024 their second album called "Secrets Of Ancient Gods", and keeping their style defined by their first album "Dead Life" released in 2020, there's some high quality Groove Metal with some great influences of Death Metal and Thrash Metal, this time with more influences from Oriental and Mid-Eastern influences.
The album starts with an intro the immerses the listener on the atmosphere that will be soon explored in the album using instruments such turkish ney, sitar, some percussions and even symphonic orquestrations.
The first track "Abyss Of Flame" is a perfect introduction and explanation about what we're about to hear through the entire album, headbanging riffs, some constant tempo changes from blast beats to the groovy mid-tempos.
"Karnak" show us the evolving melodies through the headbanging breakdowns that are all over the album with great highlight to Alex Sitkoff's vocals that goes from the traditional aggression to some deep growls.
The next track, "Arcana XVI" keeps the linear progression of the album with some highlights to the ethnics elements on it, it's basically impossible listening to it and not give attention to the percussion that plays a really important role through the song. In this specific one I would like to hear the sitar a little bit louder hecause it sounds a little bit off between the barrage of sound created by the other instruments.
Compared to the previous album, we can say that the band bet more on originality, now we have a really great technical construction and some lyrics in Ukrainian language that makes it feels much more personal to the band, their confort place. "Nasha Khoda Nevpynna" talks about the War in Ukraine and keeps it with some spiritual side, after all, the name of the band is Arhat, and it describes a person who reached the nirvana.
When we talk about musics that hace some regional background, it's always important that we can have some atmosphere on ot to keep the listener inside what is actually is beign addressed in the lyrics, and for sure, Arhat don't fail in this parameter, even the comparation with Nile and Crescent are pretty valid.
The track "Symbols" is a great example of how the guitarrist Anton Skrebov and the bassist Anton Inov can utilize various technics to keep the riffs going like palm-muting, tremolo picking, and cutting through the song with some great melodies that some times gets a little bit proggy, especially when combined with the sitar, not only here but through a lot of songs on the album.
"Path Eternal" is probably my favorite song out there, with some awesoome passages using the trukish ney, the band manages to get a really good atmospheric intro, then to a groovy part with some cutting melodies on it. The percussion here does a great job alongside the orquestrations keeping the sound on full throttle.
"Wheel Of Fate" is probably one of the songs that you will listen more than two times, there's a weird feeling that all the main instruments are here but you can note that the orquestrations were around throught the entire song giving a nice backup to the guitar melodies. The ending riff started by the bass it's one of the peaks of the albums.
The last track in english is "The Great Unknown", with some vocal suport of Dmytro Moskalenko (Violateress) this is the most simple track of the entire album, but still with the sheer violence that we saw on the previous songs.
The last track of the album is sung in Ukrainian, "Shlyah do Prozrinnya", and and just like "Path Eternal", it shows a great work using with the sitar, turkish ney and the orchestrations beign the main thing here. All of that on a traditional Thrash Metal cadence giving a brutal ending for the album.
In general, the album for sure shows a technical evolution of the band, especially when it comes to the atmospheric parts. My only down here, is about the mixing in some moments, the orchestrations, tukish ney and sitar could be a little bit louder, but maybe this is only my perception. It's pretty hard to choose specific songs here, the progression here (throughout the album, not the songs) are quite linear without low points, the energy is everywhere, and it's quite impossible not to headbang to every song on it. Special props to the percussion work here leaded by Ivan Semenchuk, it's complete in every fucking way.
In 2023, the Finnish band Omnivortex delivered their second album called "Circulate" (Inverse Records), still exploring the horror of H.P. Lovecraft, the band managed to record a captivating album with a destructive sound and a dark atmosphere.
We can perfectly say that Omnivortex's sound fit the explored theme like a glove, and just like on the first album, the band followed the terrifying stories of the horror genius H.P. Lovecraft, with lots of Blast-Beats, shredding guitars with melodies that matches perfectly the lyrical evolution of the songs.
In the track "Dwells", we have that mix of Black and Death Metal, where the guitars cut through the Blast Beats with the characteristic melody of Black Metal sound in a moment embracing the calm with a few chords that soon explode into pure chaos.
In the track "Transforming To Pale Mist", very dense guitars starting in a Meshuggah-like Groove and soon after we return to that furious Blackened Death Metal with raw vocals presented in the first track, a dissonant solo with a lot of tapping showing a more intense side of the band's progressive approach to Black Metal.
On the third track, we have "Of Aeons Past", the band's first single released before the official release of the album, a track that is very reminiscent of the sound explored by Behemoth, in a Black Metal obscure and slow Atmosphere with greater exploration on the progressive side.
In "Slumbering In Black", the band returns to the approach of the first track, but instead of the explosion, we have a slower and more atmospheric beginning, while "Mechanical Emotions" with a more galloping riff on the guitars is crossed by some acoustic guitar chords and a catchy melody as the band explodes into speed.
In "Husk" and "Habingers Of Cosmic Death" we have more explosion and weight while in the track "Endless" we already have a more atmospheric and a little calmer feel than in the rest of the album. In terms of sound, we have a "lost brother" of Hath who in 2022 released the album "All That Was Promised" showing a dense combination of Black and Death Metal with a strong progressive evolution.
In 44 minutes of sound, Omnivortex shows a dark and magnificent atmosphere, furious vocals, fast drums full of technique, tearing vocals and guitars that perfectly capture a bit of density and melody.
My favorites are "Dwells", "Transforming To Pale Mist" and "Mechanical Emotions" (my favorite of all songs).
Bio: Kalion is a Symphonic Black Metal from Barcelona, Spain. Not much is known about the band's history, but the band probably broke up after the death of bassist Xabi Torroja in 2002 due to a motorcycle accident.
Bio: Founded in 1987 by drummer D.D. Crazy after his departure from Sarcófago, Sextrash was one of the most influential bands in Brazilian Death Metal, with the legendary albums "Sexual Carnage" released in 1990 and "Funeral Serenade" in 1992. In 1991 drummer D.D. Crazy left the band. The band split for the first time in 1997 following the death of vocalist Pussy Ripper. The band returned to activities in 2003 with bassist Tommy Krueger, drummer Quake, guitarist Marck Monthebar and vocalist Doom. With this lineup, the band released their third album "Rape From Hell" in 2006.
