The Blasphemous Sinner of Damnation Impurity

I stumbled upon this marvel by sheer chance, because Colombian releases are very hard to come by here in Argentina. Sure; I had checked the CD on YouTube before, and it had failed to impress me, because it sounded like a tinny demo there. Not so on my stereo; I will expand on that later. I rarely comment on the booklets, but the one that comes with this CD has to be seen to be believed; super-thick, high-quality, glossy paper with great sepia artwork, member pics and lyrics.

I can understand where the previous reviewer's disappointment comes from, for this is hardly a strictly BM record, let alone a second wave one; no double kick drum rolls, no tremolo picking, no high-pitched shrieking. Instead, these trio treat us to a furious and primitive first-wave, late 80s approach, that combines elements inspired on hardcore punk (think Discharge), grindcore (think Nasum) and of course, the mighty Sarcófago, but never ripping off any of them.

The drums are startlingly thunderous, the bass is trebly, but totally audible, and the guitar is at times just a treble-free droning sound in the background, except when the axman resorts to his volume pedal. There are no rhythm or second guitars on the recording, nor it would seem they had overdubbed anything. On the contrary, it would seem as if the band jammed this on a pro studio. Solos are not in abundance, but when they rear their head, they do so in a loud, short, trebly, killer way, and they simply ANNIHILATE. They are far from technical, mind you, but are not simple affairs, and they clearly show the guitarist can play his instrument way beyond the boundaries of this particular subgenre. Vocals are not the typical low growl, for the singer's register is not deep enough, but this only adds to the charm.

The first two tracks are OK, just not that engaging (hence my knocking off that final 10%), but from the third on, all hell breaks loose. Maybe the songs lack direction and coherence, for they alternate catchy grooves with ultra chaotic sections, with no apparent pattern to it, but that only added to my excitement, since I am a huge crust, punk, and grind fan as well.

The sound and mix on this album is so incredibly good, both tonally and dynamically, I was able to play it flat through my floorstanders without the aid of my equalizer or subwoofer; a rare occurrence. The lyrics are mostly in English, mega-blasphemous and anti-christian. Except 2 of the nine songs, that are sung in Spanish, the rest are in English. I found myself consistently liking the Spanish-sung songs better. I thought they fit the style much better and that the guys should have composed all the CD in that language, but I guess I cannot have the cake and eat it.

Another thing that may annoy potential listeners, is that most songs have intros made up by horror movie samples, and some are somewhat lengthy. They are absolutely spot on in my opinion, and provide a lot of atmosphere to the album, because at the end of each one, the music starts abruptly to effect, making you jump from your couch, but at five and a half minutes, out of the 34:21 total album duration, they certainly overstay their welcome. My guess is they were that long to pad out what would have otherwise been an EP at under 30'. But I personally enjoyed them to bits.

People expecting a pure, trve kult, conventional BM album, in the vein of Blasphemy or Impurity, WILL be turned off by this CD. If you like crossover of styles, and originality, you will be in for a hell of a treat.