Sexta-Feira 13

The title of this review was perhaps the easiest part to write and it even sums up the impression on this demo appropriately. Nostalgia is an interesting part of the human mindset, but even from this peculiar perspective and without considering some expected short-comings, this demo was released in 1986 after all, it is still an endurance to listen to it. Some musicians should not touch an instrument or try to sing, they are simply not made for this, as they lack of talent and maybe even the feeling for rhythm and melody. When it comes to Sexta-feira 13 by Black Cross then such is the case with the vocalist. He is occasionally so goddamn far off the timing that it reaches the point in being really really annoying. As the guitars, be it the four or the six strings, also like to leave the shores of coherence and venture for no apparent reason towards some far off chaotic realms, the listener is confused about what is going on here.

Black Cross are from Portugal, claimed to be one of their countries first extreme metal bands, are influenced by early Black Sabbath and especially tracks like Heavy Metal have a good touch of NWoBHM. A lot of solos can be found in the compositions and even though they are not bad, they simply do not fit into them. As they appear out of the blue and sound like an extension to the tracks, they have this touch of 'the guitarist wants to show his abilities' aka excessive guitar-wankery; the fifth track, Minotauro, consists nearly entirely of it. Displaced, without a flow in the compositions and being woven neatly into the melodies is the guitarist solo performance, but in some respect does the bass-player want to chip in and shows his abilities on Genocidio, before the guitar player performs another one of his.

Actually, would it not be for the flaws in the concept as well as in the strange emphasis on certain aspects in the concept, see above, the music would not be bad in particular. Black Cross was undoubtedly familiar with some of the early records by Black Sabbath and once they were able to motivate themselves to write melodies, then it becomes quite listenable as the riffs have some catchiness and some amount of drive.

The best track is maybe the sixth one, Genocidio in a live version, because it is there and only there that Black Cross got the timing right in some respect, yet the vocalist has again some difficulties in getting all the lyrics sung in the required time; I wonder whether they did ever rehearse the stuff.

Nostalgia? Certainly not when it comes to this band... this demo is a strain to the ear and would this be a young band then all band members should get spanked at least for an hour and then locked up in a rehearsal room for a week or so. Maybe fans from the Portuguese metal scene will find this interesting, but anyone with a sane mind and some sense of fancy for melodies, timing and song-writing should skip this one. 30 points because it was recorded over twenty years ago and it does not entirely suck.