Trail of Blood

The solo project of Alexandre Rodrigues, Crushing Axes is a no frills death metal project that has been soldiering on for the better part of the past decade. Though the project was formed in 2008, Rodrigues has just unleashed the band’s thirteenth full length album, Trail of Blood. Rodrigues has steadily improved Crushing Axes over the years, both musically and visually. It wasn’t until the release of 2013’s Frozen Soul that the project really caught my attention as a band to really keep an eye on, but Rodrigues has managed to continue crafting some punchy and driving death metal.

Much like the vast discography of the band, Trail of Blood offers primitive death metal with a strong reliance on grooving, yet pummeling riffing. Chunky palm muting and driving power chords offer most of the backdrop for the gruff, throaty shouts, though a few flourishes of melodic accouterments and groovy licks pop up here and there. Some cool yet rather simplistic solos are mixed in, with an experimental-psych-tinged one catching me completely by surprise on the title track. Crushing Axes sounds its heaviest, and, frankly, best, when the riffing alternates between galloping palm muting and driving death metal riffs. The frequent dips into groovy, mid-era Sepultura-tinged moments is a small turn off, but Rodriques always manages to bring things back.

While Trail of Blood might suffer from a bit of sameness flowing throughout its thirty-three minute run time, Rodrigues brought a trio of guest vocalists from other Brazilian bands to change things up: Jairo from Chaos Synopsis; Luiz from Hatematter; and Glauber from Nekrost. It’s a nice change of pace during the album, as Rodrigues employs his gruff, grunting shout throughout. Though these vocalists and a newfound exploration with solos add an unexpected element of surprise, the lack of a live drummer is glaringly evident, with a passable but simplistic sequence of programmed drums. Despite all of this, the songs are streamlined and straight forward, offering a brevity and honesty not often found in death metal these days.

Trail of Blood continues the rapid pace of the Crushing Axes release cycle. It’s probably not going to bring flocks of new fans to the Crushing Axes fold, but the use of three guest vocalists from three relatively popular Brazilian metal acts might turn a few heads. The latest installment fits in nicely with the rest of the band’s catalog, which is all available for free download from the band’s homepage. That being said, it’s a rather safe album at this point in the band’s career, probably on par with Undead Warrior, but it will probably only garner a few passing listens here and there going forward.

Written for The Metal Observer.