Ensaio

There was a dump truck worth of demos to have come out of Brazil: some escaping as lost finds, while others remained for a one drop stop destination to the landfill without a single regret in doing so. Hellhunter's "Ensaio" demo from '97 is just that. Take 'er away boys.

The terrible recording quality of a rehearsal isn't the worst of the band's dilemmas. The song writing needed to go back to the drawing board not once, but over and over...and over and over again. The band is so sloppy and out of sync with each other that it actually gives me a headache, and this is coming from someone who listens to a lot of these lost, no, vile demo tapes. Multiple times have I tried to give this a complete spin. Not till now, can I see that this is a new form of torture in its full duration. If you've ever gone to the movies and within the first minute know the rest is going to bomb, this is that same trapped, itchy skin feeling of no escape.

The band is so unrefined with their playing, that I'm not even sure which precise genre they fall into. It sounds like '80s influences with a mix of '90s black metal got that steamrolled over and tried to put back together again. The vocalist belongs in the avian family. One of those pissed off, squawky seagulls that's had one too many people step over and abuse it. He ruffles his angry, higher pitched feathers to guitars handing out more mistiming than an epileptic in a fit trying to write something as simple as their name. These aren't terribly complicated riffing structures. Their stab at musicianship makes Venom look like Yngwie Malmsteen. I can hear the guitar lines clear enough, and even so this sounds like one continuous drunken, loosely played strumming technique. The band moves in a midrange and also pick up to faster sections that waver more than a flag in the heart of Chicago. With the shear amount of repetition going on, I'd imagine the band would have perfected what they were playing.

I feel like I need to shave again after listening to Hellhunter's "Ensaio" demo, due to even one song seeming like it took hours to finish. Even if you've received this free, you'll pay and probably feel pretty foolish. It needed that much work and not even one of the band members is managing to save the day here. I don't know how that many terrible musicians found each other but this is proof that freaks accidents exist.