River of Death

Although this may like sound nothing more than a garage band who have a pretty good command of an analog 8 track recorder, this is a little less than half of what would become one of the most aggressive things to come out of the Brazilian power metal scene just after the turn of the millennium. Indeed, for an independent release, it is well mixed and clearly defined, and like a band that truly understands their craft, there is no need for advanced studio technology to make them sound great. This is a smaller, yet more honest representation of the merging of power, thrash, and melodic death metal that would become “…And The Raw Metal Power”.

Perhaps the largest difference between this and what became the full length debut can be found in the vocal work. Oliva definitely is not augmenting the between sections of his verses with all the Halford screams that ended up on the finalized album, and the harmony vocal parts sound a bit closer without all of the studio reverb. Likewise, the harsh vocal work is more akin to the sepulchral character of bands like Skyfire and Kalmah, as the really deep barks that often accompanied the shrieks are absent, and when the harsh sounds go lower, they don’t quite hit the bottom of the frog’s vocal chords, the way they do particularly on the studio version of “Hammer Of Gods” (which still sounds like a homage to Amon Amarth even without the vocal similarities).

This is a bit hard to find, but it might be worth it as the reissue of “River Of Death” doesn’t have this version of “Out Of Control”, which actually sounds a good bit closer to the 80s metal character that it seemed to be reaching for on said album, but largely didn’t due to the ultra-dark sound of the production. It has a little bit more of an overt Judas Priest character due to a greater emphasis on the higher vocal harmonies and somewhat cleaner vocal job pulled off on here, which carries its own charm as it is still clearly drawing from a thrash/melodic death character in spite of the lighter sound. I guess it all depends on how committed you are to the funny farm of rabid completists and rarity hounds.