Brutal Orgasmo - Promo Tape 99

Side A:
1.Vingança obscura
2.Insane Morbid Undead

Side B
1.Perdidos na droga
2.Não voltas mocidade

Line Up:
Rui- Guitar
João - Vocals
Luis - Drums
Jorge - Guitar

Recorded and produced by Armando Glória at Digodai studios, 21,22, 23 December 1998.
Distribuited by NemesisPromotion (Torres Novas)

Cool name for a band... although in Portuguese, it's quite understandable.

On this tape we can find more or less the same style than the previous demo from Brutal Whisper. Death Metal and some Grindcore mixed in.
Deep Growling vocals, blastbeats, of course, with some slow/mid-paced parts to balance.
There's one cool thing about this one; Lyrics in Portuguese! At least 3 of the 4 tracks have titles in Portugues, althoug i cannot really distinguish them sinse this doesn´t come with lyrics sheet.
"Vingança Obscura" means "Obscure vengence";
"Perdidos na droga" stands for "Lost in Drugs";
"Não voltas mocidade" goes "No return to youth" or something of that kind.

Only one sentence i can really understand , is the last frase on "Não voltas mocidade". The guy growls in Portuguese "...que tristeza!" . Don´t know the contex but it the guy is sad and perhaps mad with something.
Either way , this last sentence sticks on you, but it does not describes the tape itself at all.

Also nothing extraordinary, Brutal Death/grind is what you get, pure and simple.

Score: 6.5

Brutal Whisper - Whithin Violence - 1998

1.Agressive discipline
2.Dead in the dark
3.Truth of murder
4.Addicted to blood


Label:
Lustful Records

All music by Brutal Whisper.
Recorded at Multimedia studios.
Produced, engineered and mixed by Brutal Whipar & Luis Mascarenhas.

Line up:
João Luis - Bass, vocals
Nelson Neves - Guitar, vocals
Vicelio Luis - Guitar
João Neves - Drums

Death Metal in it's most brutal way with some Grindcore influences from Faro.
4 tracks of aggression, grunts and growls some blastbeats and some ok riffing and solos.
Here and there some clean vocals but mostly deep growling vocals.
But unfortunatly , nothing out of the common day to day basis.
The band tries hard and you can see the effort, but this isn´t enought. Its a cool brutal tape anyway, just don´t expect anything extraordinary.

Ratting: 6

Disfigured Human Mind - Deadly Fragments - 2000

Line up:
Cadáver Panafernalicus (Gutural gore vomits)
Cadáver Pathologicus (Rotten Guitar)
Blazum (Putrid Bass)
Cadáver Putrefactus (Translucid Screams)
Cadáver Macabrus (Carnal Drums)

On to a diferent style...
Grindcore. This is what we have on this one. At least i think it is...

This tape has 30(!!!) tracks on each side. Named First Murder and Second Murder (Hum...original...)
Also this is recorded live in the studio...

Now , this is probably the easiest tape to discribe. What can i say? I even didn't finished listening to the hole "First Murder" yet...
Grindcore? Nops... hum....err... noise, an huge amount of racket! Just dreadfull....Random noises with intruments and voices.
I like Grindcore. And this tape sounds nothing like Grindcore. Some friends got together , picked up intruments and tried to play some notes...
I can´t understand what is "True" and "Underground" about this. I guess i can compare to Anal Cunt and followers but , worse... (lol, can it be? :))
Seriously, i can´t like this. This is utter bullshit to me. Sorry guys , but this fails to deliver.
Perhaps They had good ideas , but failed completely trying...

By 2000 it was, like in our days (and this is very good), too easy to make a recording. And then these kinds of things surface... I guess there's got to be some audiance for this type of entertainment...

Anyway , someday i'll try to listen to the second part of this and then perhaps i'll change my mind, but by the way this looks, i don´t think it will get any better...

these guys hailded from Fundão, and my copy is the nº24/1000 (1000 copies!!!!????).

Got this one in a deal with some other tapes for free... (This was , i guess, the only positive thin about this tape...)
On to the shelf and dust till the end of time...

Score: 1

Decayed - Ataque Infernal - 2000

Side Black:
1-From The Catacombs (intro)
2-In Lustful Mayhem ('94)
3-Cannibalistic Devourment / Deliverance (Grog/Sacred Sin covers)
4-The Seven Seals ('98)

Side Metal:
1-Tormentor (Kreator cover)
2-Sign Of Evil (Violent Force cover)
3-Woman Of Dark Desires (Bathory cover)
4-The Conqueror (Sodom cover)

Label: Luci Dist Productions

Line-up:
JM - Vocals & Bass
JA - Gutar & fx
VJ - Guitar

Decayed, the first Black Metal band i've had contact with. This was in 1992 in the double LP "The birth of a tragedy".

Also and to me probably the best around in the genre in these lands. These guys do not get corpse paint and the badass evilook like most B.M. bands get into and with what i really dont like a bit...
They preach the Music for the Music and the rest is bullshit. And here is where they became distant from so many other outfits.

It seems that the band will split in 2011... (i cannot wondering if that is just a bad joke...)

Either way, their legacy is grand. Compilations, 7'', demos, Live albums, etc, etc, etc...

This one; It is a kinda "best of" or covers album.
On the 8 tracks (or 9 if you want to be more precice) only 2 (if you take out the intro) are Decayed tunes. And they are re-recordings. "In Lustful Mayhem" is a diferent version than the one present in the album with the same name from 1995 (Skyfall 85.001). Much rawer and dirty which makes it better.
The other, "The seven seals" is also in the same vein as the previous but in this case i prefer the original (1992, "The seven seals" 7'' on Dark Records).
Either way, i think they're the best tracks here. As for the covers i must underline the Grog/Sacrd Sin cover .
We all know Bathory, Kreator or Sodom, and it's always good to to hear those tracks but to me the Grog/Sacred Sin meddley/covers is the best one and far the most fortunate result (although you end up feelling and wanting more...).

Rate: 6

Antiquus Scriptum - In Pulverem Reverteris - 2000

1-Fleurs Du Mal - Initium
2-Bula Ad Extirpenda (Innocentio IV, 1252 - Thy Saint Office Of Inquisition Of Faith)
3-In Pulverem Reverteris
4-A Nightside Of Eden - Finalis

Line-up:
Sacerdos Magus - Vocals, bass, guitars & programing
Helskir - Keyboards

Recorded at MoshPit by Paulo Vieira.
Logo by Christophe Szpajdel .
Words by Sacerdos Magus

"This work was totally conceived by the band without any label support"
(Cover statement)


Black Metal.
As i said in early posts , this is not my favotite dish, although good music is always welcome.
And this tape is with any doubt a good tape. 2 Tracks , one intro and outro.

The demo starts with an keybord instrumental intro . after comes "Bula Ad Extirpenda" ,the high point to this recording. After the intro ends, we are assaulted with an blasting start. This realy kicks ass ...
I must say that what pleases me the most is the vocals. We do not have those grim , raw type of vocals higly present in most Black Metal releases.
Dunno really how to discribe it but, perhaps acute and sounding like an young kid screaming, surely sounds good to me. Also what this track has good is the chorus , very orchestral and environmental.

The title track, is also ok, full with blastbeats, speed and really ends fast.

The last track, an instrumental, based on clean guitars, ambient nature sounds and ending in tribal chants (Hum.. "Roots" anyone?...) . I guess its ok, to ease the ears after the energy discharge of the previous tracks.

This demo (as well as other material) can be downloaded at the band's Myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/antiquusscriptum/blog

Also , this got proper re-issue recently, both on cd and tape.

Rate: 7

Carnification - Embracing Solitude - Promo track 99

Track list:
1. Embracing solitude

Line-up:
Luis Franco - Vocals
João Raposo - Lead Guitars
Paulo Maciel - Rythm guitar
Paulo Jorge - Bass
Marco Camilo - Drums

Cover:
Nelson Correia

Logo and foto:
Christophe Szpajdel

Recorded at MM Music Studio.
Produced and Mastered by Eduardo Botelho.

What can be said about a demo with only a little more than 4 minutes long?
You definitly get the feeling of wanting more...
Which in this case is a good thing sinse the track is ok and enjoyable. Good Death Metal with 2 kinds of vocals. There's the typical growling and a second sounding vocals mixed that i quiet enjoy.
Makes us believe that the guy in an agonizing pain or in a terrible suffering... way cool.

Unfortunatly those vocalizations don't make hole and at least one more track would be necessary to get a far more better picture of this band's work.

These guys hail from the islands of Açores, which , as far as i can tell has a very good number of bands and very good underground scene. Much better than some of the "bigger" cities in the continent (mine definitly included...).

Score: 6

Download from Metalicidio.com.

Moonspell - Anno Satanae - 1993/1996

1. Intro
2. Goat on Fire
3. Ancient Winter Goddess
4. Wolves From the Fog
5. Outro

Label: Lion Records

Moonspell, probably the best known Portuguese band.
I got the 1st contact with the band back in 92 when they were still known as MORBID GOD in the double LP "The birth of a tragedy" compilation.
I must say, didn't like them a bit. In fact i thought they had the weakest track on the hole compilation. Listening to all other bands i still do...

On to this demo. This is a re-release made in 1996. The band were having sucsess and someone got the idea of putting this again avaible. Not bad idea at all.
But as the music goes , not much changed sinse the MTM compilation. In fact i think the Morbid God track is better than this hole demo. Let's face it, i'm not a big Black Metal fan, and this is not really worth many listens. The most notorius defect is that it is Not very well played, and it shows.
The intro and "Goat on fire" were also present on the Compilation "Mortuary vol.1" that same year (1993).
Also in 2007 all these track were re-recorded. And now i can say i like this demo.
The re-recordings are SOOOO much better... I do tend to not liking these kinda releases but the "Under Satanae" compilation does these tracks a much more better justice.

Score: 4,5 (demo), 7,5 (re-release compilation cd "Under Satanae")

Exiled - Exiled - 1993

Side A
1.You're Dead
2.Again
3.Anarchy*

Side B
1.Human Boundaries
2.Coroner's Bliss
3.Screams**

Produce by Nuno Loureiro assisted by Ramiro Martins.
Recorded at EXILED studios and mixed at EDIT studios.
All music by Nuno Loureiro except ** by Nuno Loureiro/Fernando Dantas and * by SEX PISTOLS.

Again , Death metal with not much or anything to to add or be noticed for.
I got a bit dificulties in getting along with the vocals. A mix of growl and somewhat shouted kind that is really hard to like.
The Sex Pistols cover doen´t help either, not a happy choice if you ask me.

Score: 5.5

Agonizing Terror - Ways of Existence - 1997

Here's a band best known not for the good reasons.
The band members got involved in conspiracies and murdurers within their own families...
All for , at least as far as i know , money issues. But that doesn´t matter here.

This was the band's second demo. Death Metal, i guess i can classify it as decent or listenable. We can listen occasionaly some Gothic influences, clean female vocals, acoustic guitars and some really melodic parts. Nothing out of the ordinary, but worth a good listen once in while.

Line up:
TóJó - Vocals and Guitar
Marco - Lead Guitar and backing Vocals
Sara - Drums and vocals

Recorded and mixed at Rec n'Roll Studios, May/April 1997.
Released by Prophetical Promotions (a division of Lustful Records)

1.Ways of Existence
2.Hole of Eternal Fall
3.Into Eternity
4.Eternally Condemned
5.Outro

Score: 6.5

Encancrate - A New Cicle Of Fear -1996

1.In-Thru (Howls Of Silence)
2.Consistent Fear
3.Inhuman Life Form
4.Poin 'N' Blow

-Line up:
Cunha - Vocals
Frazão - Guitar
Bicho - Guitar
Claudio - Bass
Kampino - Drums

-Recorded, mixed and produced by Luis Barros at Rec'n'roll studios, March '96

-All lyrics & Music by ENCANCRATE, "in-thru (howls of silence)" by: Fernando Marques & ENCANCRATE.

A Death/Thrash band from Vila Franca de Xira. This was it´s only release.
Got contact with them through the "High Radiation" vol.II" compilation cd. In fact it's one of the high point of that disc. I'll give it some words as well later on.

Competent music, decent solos and a great track "Consistent fear".

Score/rating: 7

Check for yourselfs at Portugal Underground.

Afterdeath - Unreal Sight - 1994

1- Justice Manipulation
2 - Live For Today
3 - Speaks On Your Thoughts (inst.)
4 - Hunger Calling
5 - Deep In Natural Art (inst.)

Produced and mixed by João Martins
Recorded on 26 & 27 of February 1994 at Heavensound Studios, Almada.

Line-up:
Sérgio Paulo-vocals
Virgílio Neto-guitar
Roberto Monteiro-bass
Filipe Martins-drums

All keyboards effects by Jorge ''Koto'' Santos.

All fotos by Jorge "Koto" Santos.
Special thanks to Jorge Martins

Genre: Death Metal
Sub-genre: Progressive

One of the most interesting bands from what i call "The first Movement". And , now, i think i'll try to explain my definitions of "Ground Zero", "The First Movement" , "Second wave" and "Present".

If you've read my previous posts , you might notice the expression"Ground Zero". This is what i call to the bands from a certain period. More likely the time from the 1st Metal band/release in Portugal until the time i started to get into the Portuguese underground, which was around 1990/1991.

So ,
"Ground Zero" from ... to 1990
"The First Movement" 1991-1995
"The Second Wave" 1996-2000
"Present" 2001-today

This said, Afterdeath, Progressive Death Metal, or a Band trying to inovate. At some point they manage to do so in particular in the first 2 tracks, which by the way i consider the high points of this demo. The other tracks ,2 of them instrumentals kinda fall into a dull and tasteless hearing effort.

Score/rating: 6.5

Sepulcro - Flesh Meets Steel - 1987/2010

Side A (Demo 1985)

1. Flesh Meets Steel
2. Street Survivor
3. Space Line No. 13
4. Rock And Roll Raiders
5. Born On The Road

Side B (Demo 1986)

1. Pictures Of Silence
2. R.I.P.
3. I Wanna See Girls
4. Gimme Shelter

Label ; The forge (limited to 300)
Music & lyrics by Miguel Pinto
Line-up:
Miguel Pinto - Vocals
Manuel "Animal" - Drums
Isidro "Chibo" - Bass
Jorge "Marmitas" - Guitar

This is a re-release of the band's both demos from the mid 80's. Heavy Metal is what you get here. And really good stuff it is! Another great band from the "Ground Zero" Portuguese Metal.
I'm really glad i got this tape, is was really worth it. Although i'm not a Trad./Heavy fan at all, i do know and recognize a good recording and good music when i hear one.

Early Priest influence all over with a dark feel from Deep Purple's early stuff blended in.
Best tracks on the 85 demo are the 1st two. Which also makes them also the best on all recording. Sinse i consider the 86 demo not so good as the first. Weither way all tracks make a very enjoyable listen.

Ranking/score: 7,5

"NOS OSSOS QUE AQUI ESTAMOS PELOS VOSSO ESPERAMOS"

Via Dolorosa - Acropole Rock '97 - 1997

Side A

1- Intro
2- Deseased
3 - Under

Side B

1 - Storms within
2 - Shitsong
3 - Silence

Recorded at the MASS studios (lol, aka the garage of my parents), 1997.
Produced (?!) by Via Dolorosa
All lyrics by Marco, all music by Via Dolorosa.
Line up:
Marco Alexandre - guitars
Nuno Bertolo - drums
Sergio "Mé"- bass
Nuno"Rainha"- vocals

This is awkward... Writting and reviewing my own band... realy strange.
This band was my first attempt in trying to be somesort of Metal musician, nedless to say, that it totally failed at least on this 1st assault.

Like every metalhead , i too was no exception , and started a band. This was aroun 95 , i think.
But only came to real and physical form in 96. Basically the band were 2 freaks, me and the drummer, who i still call my brother in arms...
The other 2 came but never had the feel or enthusiasm of a real metalhead, in fact they were in 'cause we had nobody else...

OK, that's enough, on to the demo. SHIT, SHIT , SHIT!!!!
Not "Tha shiet" but a total piece of crap! I totally failed to create something listenable. It is not like those grindcore bands that only do noises and distortions making an enormous amount of racket , but, and although i had some decent ideias , the recording didn´t turned out to be acceptable. We had to have many, many hours of reharsal before trying to make a recording...
And that shows, The big defect on this is the lack of reharsal.

The musics, er... i dunno... how to describe it... but in 1997 the thrend was grunge/alternative/gothic , so i guess it isn't Thrash or Death Metal like we know it but a mixed of those thrends (from my fellow partners of course) with my oldschool stuff. I guess today people would call it Groove/Post-Thrash, i guess.

This was done in order to get us playing on a show on this bar called Acropole. We sent this to them and we got our 1st gig. As for that show in particular it went ok. But that was the high point of our carreer...

Also did some copies for friends and did some more to other promoters but i'm glad not many copies exist, and for the ones that were made i hope they're buried seven feet under!!!
I still hold the master, though. Eventualy i did digitilized it, but erased the files before someone could unleash the beast ... lol.

Hopefully One day i'll get a huge pile of cash for it....

Ratting/score: 2

V12 - V12 -1990

Side A

1-Sinais dos Tempos (Sings of times)
2-Causa Perdida (Lost cause)
3-Sol da Lua (Light of the moon)
4-Hhaar
5-Crack

Side B

1-Claustrofobia (Claustrophobia)
2-Invocação (Invocation)
3-Conto de Fadas (Fairy tale)
4-Negócio das Almas (Tradding souls) *

5-Rota da Fé (Faith course)

Another one that i call , "This is tha shiett!!!".
Oh, totally awsome. I remember back when this came out , 20 years (!!!???) ago, that i had this mixed feelings of disgust and joy. But this joy was in a negative way, sinse i considered this to be a joke.This was due to the fact that the album is totally sung in Portuguese.

Back then, i was into the most aggressive, brutal music that could exist, the time was for brutallity, gore, rage, anger and above all in english. And i got suprised that a band even tried to sing in it's native language... Well these guys did... and now , all this time later, i'm really glad they did!

Of course , that, for any metalhead that doen't understand Portuguese , this can be persived as... er... shit... like i did back then. But that was when i was just a kid who just got into Morbid Angel , Deicide, Carcass or Entombed. Now that i'm older (huh....) and a bit more open minded (lol) this really sounds incredibly good.

Great guitar work, Power Metal vocals, although they describe themselves as Speed Metal, and a couple of very good writting and lyrics. "Claustrophobia" is definitly the most cheasy, radio frendly track. And except for "Hhaar" (a totally unecessary filler) all great Power/Melodic/Trad/Heavy Metal classics.

Got this tape a few years ago on a local store here in my town for 1€!!! lol...
What a catch!!! After this got into my collection, it became one of my favorite Portuguese albums of all time. The fact is, if they got to sang in english, like they wanted to, (somehow they were forced by the label...) they would never, ever, became such a legend , that they are now. To me they are the Best from which i call the "Ground zero" era of the Portuguese Metal.

There are others similar in popularity and quality like Alkateya, Sepulcro, Tarantula, Casablanca, Procyon, just to name a few , but , and again, which made these guys so unique was that caracteristic that i once hated...

Oh, the irony.....

This was released by Polygram Discos in 1990.
Produced by Emanuel Ramalho.
Recorded and mixed at Angel 1 studios , Lisbon.
The tape version has a diferend track listing than the LP.
All music by V12, all lyrics by V12 except * by Jorge de Sena.

So far, there is only the vynil and cassete version of this album. A single (with 2 tracks) was released to promote the album also in 1990. The band had a prior demo, totally in enlish and also made a demo after the album. They broke up shortly after the album came out and reunited a couple years later with a female singer just to record that demo and for a few gigs. Sinse they wanted to go on for professional musicians and couldn't get a record deal or pay the bils with the few gigs they had, the band foulded for good around 93/94...

Score/ratting: 10

EXOMORTIS - "From darkness to darkness" 1991

SIDE A
01 - Intro
02-Ancient Tomb
02 - Petrified Pleasures
03 - A Tribute To Thrash

SIDE B
01 - The Abcess
02 - Enslavement Of Obscurity
03 - Psychotic Aberrance *

Ahh... this is the shit!!! Death Metal, simple and raw. What can be said? The production sucks big time , in fact , what production?!...
Despite the shitty sound , this is my all time favorite demo, no doubt, the nº1!!!

"A tribute to Thrash" is a great instrumental , maybe the best track here. I got a bit disapointed back then due to the sound quality but it grew on me. I got hooked in such a way that i would listen to it repeatedly non stop all afternoon when i get back from school.

Score: 10! (of course)



This is the line-up for the demo except for the bass player missing (Diegods was his name back then)
-Recorded in december 1991 at "Bacana Tropical Studios" (hum... sounds like their reharsal place to me...) , produced by Exomortis and assisted by C. Clerigo.
- All music by EXOMORTIS and lyrics by Phantas except * by Diegods.
- Guest vocals on* by Octavio from DESCRATION (and later DEFLOWER MIND, the "neighbours" and friends from Juncal)
- Line-up:

Lhô - Vocals (2nd on the left, sitting)
Phantas - Guitars (1st, left, sitting)
Diegods - Bass (missing)
Sexy - Guitars and back. vocals (3rd, left,up)
Mumiay - Drums (4th , left, up)

Pretty awkward nicks... they hailed from Maceira, Leiria...

No thanks list: "Army, our enemies"
Another curiosity: "Thrash" was a dog´s name!!! In fact it was Celia's dog (dunno who she was/is, a friend of the band...) that had died at the time...

PS: Just on more thing, it can be downloaded here:
Portugal Underground
(With license from the band!)

Good Morning!!! Still alive...

Ah, fuck this... Going to quit the dissection of my cd collection!
Too goddam trouble!!! Everyone knows the Metallica's, Carcass, Morbid Angel's or Maiden's discography/history....

Yeah , i have some pretty fuck up rare cds that i could discuss but i aint gonna do it no more. I think it would take like an eternity to get to the end of it... ( i'm still only on the beguinning of letter A).

Probably will do just a list and update it when new shit comes in. And that is going to be hard labor...

So, I've deciced to do a simpler and smaller thing. Going to review my still short DEMO-TAPE collection.
And short because i only care for the PORTUGUESE late 80's , 90's tapes. Death, mainly but also Thrash, Heavy, Doom a bit of Black and perhaps Power Metal (if they eventualy come along)

... and this is NOT going to be easy...
Let's proceed...