Road to Wisdom

From the first metal based full length coming out of Brazil in '82 with Stress's s/t, within a few years the country infamously jumped ahead of others in the sub-genre extreme metal, but they also had their fair share of unknown projects that were trailing and flat-out imitating the bigger bands from the rest of the world in regular thrash, speed and heavy. This is the '80s, when even six months after the fact was impactful in determining if a band was pioneering or just stepping in another's shadow. Eros took that sentiment much further due to being a very hopeful group who was around five or more years too late in the cutthroat game with their '90 debut that sounds like it's still emulating the heyday of earlier Bay Area thrash.

The volume levels are loud, though the instruments and equipment themselves you can tell wasn't up to world standards as it comes off as secondhand. In one way, it gave them a sound that was somewhat frayed around the edges, but for the style of non-extreme thrash I'm sure it wasn't entirely intentional. The drums come with the standard reverbed snare projection that leaps out, and the vocals are right there to give their delivery so ears could hear it without being too low or even loud.

The pacing is frequently playing a moderate, every-other-click thrash beat. Though they do lower the peg a notch to a midpace as well as add a few slow sections. The music is fun and energetic, though the composition lacks either something to knock one over with giddy excitement while it's playing or even stick with one after it's done. The band does come together at points but not always in a farseeing, built-up context that would make a lasting impression. The guitarist frequently goes for aggression by generating thicker double picking, deeper chord shuffling and plenty of palm muting. There's also others in a more traditional sense by tapping into some speed and heavy metal based chord progressions. The vocals resemble Don Doty circa "We Have Arrived" and also have areas where they attempt to give out their best impression of James Hetfield, where the technique is more clear than it is rough and also comes with semi-yells. He can give out an unschooled, half-sung vocalization that comes with more notes carelessly run over than little furry animals in your local redneck town.

Eros' "Road to Wisdom" shadows aspects from earlier Metallica, Exodus and Dark Angel, except without taking it to another level or tapping into potential areas that weren't conceived of back then because everyone was rushing to see this new style archived before the next group. Then again, I'm sure Eros might not have liked whatever the current state of music was in '90 and wanted to back track, but even with the number of years stacked on a lot of this was indeed recycled, so there wasn't a chance for the music to go anywhere even if the band wanted it to, not to mention the grab-your-attention-for-the-wrong-reasons cover art. There's no major shredder here, no chopmeister behind the drum set, no furiously fingered bassist or even a standout character behind the mic—just a couple of average sounding guys having fun by playing thrash that didn't accelerate anything forward. The drummer took the hint and continued with the death metal band P.U.S.