My Eyes, They Bleed

The nineties were littered with various branches of extreme metal. In black metal, you had bands giving nods and cues to Celtic Frost and Bathory, blending metal and folk influences together, blasting right through or dodging the rapid speeds with mid and slower tempos, even having a newer style all their own, where their influences were buried. Posthumous, though not experimental in an offbeat sense, do incorporate varied genres with their take by mixing '90s black and death with elements from speed and heavy metal from the '80s. There have been other bm bands that would be influenced in one malign way or the other by unsuspecting older groups, such as Rotting Christ with Iron Maiden, Barathrum with Manowar. In Posthumous' case, they took the grotesque growls from death, mixed it up with the most consistently weighted speed and heavy metal riffing structures and spread their word with a black metal ideology that can at times be less subtle than their song writing.

The leads are a big strength and are truly gravitating. These aren't the shredding type where the guitarist's agenda is aiming towards appearing on the front cover of a magazine and only lasting until the next time he one-ups himself. There was a lot of time taken writing them as they frequently dig and locate specific, treasurable notes, and because of that, have the capability of rewarding and captivating your attention the moment the first note is struck. You had bands like Mortuary Drape and Necromantia, for instance, who actually played the scales and proved black metal isn't such a minimalist genre. Posthumous' are far from chaotic—such as Blasphemy's were with a forceful attack and the intention of breaking every last higher string—but can instead be drenched in melody. Some of the strings can be bent, slightly whammy-ed or frequently squealed and come wailing in from all sides with this particular elevated emotional intensity; others can pluck more notes within a shorter time frame, such as working the pick with tremolo; and while some are shorter or longer than others, they manage to showcase a few in each song.

As for older influences, the rhythms can range from simplistically strummed to more quickly played opened and closed methods from speed metal. This also manages to blend thicker toned riffs that are from a nineties mind set, with chunkier palm mutes and characteristic double picking: occasionally melodic, occasionally more direct and aggressive. The speed can go from medium paced light nods, to more pulsating sections and then escalate to blasts. When blasting, there are times when the guitar isn't typically matched to the exact tempo like expected, such as having a breakneck momentum over a generally moving speed metal riff or more traditional solo—like the drummer listens to extreme metal all night, and the guitarist cranks the meanest of Judas Priest by day. They make it fit somehow, where you might initially think the idea would clash. He's not afraid to include double bass to get the music pumping, and there's some backing behind them compared to the lower recording standards associated with bm.

In Brazil, part of the evolution that European black metal had with screams didn't carry over entirely, such as material by Mystifier, Impurity, Mephistopheles, Goat Emperor and Murder Rape growling up a storm. The main vocals are mostly a hideous and deep growl, and then there are occasional back-up screams that either repeat a line of the primary vocals or just cry out in desperation and pain, as if someone croaked or got their fingers in the way of a door frame. In a few areas, the chime-ins can fit and give the moment a sense of escalation, but at other points it can be almost abrupt and awkward sounding, as if not necessary to place them there. At times the growls can sound too dry and upfront compared to the underlying instruments, which have some surrounding effects instead of being more directly in front of you.

"My Eyes, They Bleed" is a varied, though workable recording. Posthumous combines an assortment of modes and techniques from mixed areas and manages to manipulate them to its own particular style and sound. There are a few subdued keyboard sections, ranging from an organ playing on its own to some unguessable sounds sprinkled about. Acoustic guitar occasionally springs up as well. "Invoking the Winds of Damnation" blends them into the music with a slight classical vibe and some wind effects, though the song is primarily a metal one. This is capable of blending different factions of music without falling flat or playing catch up because one genre area is stronger than the other. It isn't an avant-garde, weird or even overtly experimental release, but one that follows the fundamentals of metal, bends it to their will and is comprised of musicians that obviously have some widened tastes and don't mind sharing one of them when it suits.