Immortal Unholy Triumph

What surprised me about this album is the fact that it's both Brazilian and NOT trying to copy what other foremost Brazilian bands that have gone before them have done (ie Krisiun, Sepultura, Sarcofago...).

Maybe because it's easy to just write off the majority of a countries bands as sounding like their most famous exports, but I see little here to compare Nephasth as probably the biggest Brazilian extreme metal band, Krisiun.

It's probably just my own personal, untrained no doubt, ears but the feel you get when you listen to this album is not only of the brutality you'd want from the album, but somewhat more a kinship with bands like Houwitser (certainly in terms of overall aesthetic) than the ultra precision of Krisiun.

By that I mean that the band seem more focused on the brutality with a sprinkling of groove - though the latter not remotely on par with say Insision's 'Revealed And Worshipped' for amount of groove (aka "old school riffs").

I personally don't think that the songs sound definably different enough to warrant a minute detail analytic breakdown of each song, and quite frankly that would serve to be too boring for the kind of person that'd be interested in the band IMO.

Whether or not this band is doing anything particularly new or original is lost on me, as neither do I care nor do I think it remotely important as you can usually never have too much of a bad thing - unless it itself is done in a bad way.

That's enough twisting and turning of sentances designed to try and make me sound as if I know what I'm talking about.

To simplify (and conclude), if you like bands such as Houwitser (circa 'Rage Inside The Womb') and/or want to further extend your foray into Brazilian bands, then Nephasth more than deserve your attention.

Not quite perfect, but better than a lot of the supposedly excellent (read: overrated) death metal albums of recent years... just be thankful you haven't got a lisp when it comes to pronouncing their name.