Devil's Whorehouse

Power From Hell are a Brazilian heavy metal outfit, with their most recent record Devil’s Whorehouse hitting the scene back in early 2016. This is basically a hybrid made up of harsh and sharp speed metal riffs that are shadowed with a blackened tinge, with throaty shrieks making up the vocals. Present are a lot of attitudes that reflect punk rock not only in the way the lyrics are delivered, but the drum beats give this vibe as well.

Unfortunately, there is little to no variance here. Obviously, the vocals aren’t really meant to be crystal clear, but there is no sense of real rhythm or reason to want to follow them. The riffwork does offer an atmosphere meant to fit the mood for those seeking a setting fitting for horror and darkness, and the aggression makes the guitar passages play off as a bit more mean. On the other hand, they don’t really go anywhere; there’s very little to offer in the realm of solos, melody, or strong songwriting. To add insult to injury, the drums basically use the exact same pattern the entire time, only further making this disc seem as one sided as possible.

Another thing that doesn’t help is that even though it’s clearly meant to have a rough atmosphere, there are still obvious signs of touch ups done, butting heads with the thickness in the air. A lot of this sounds rather robotic and comes off as run-of-the-mill. Truly, there wasn’t a single moment that stood apart from the rest until “Torture Garden,” which is more than halfway through the record. That track offered a slower approach that rode on suspense. After this, other songs like “Black Forest” do take a different route to relieve a little bit, but ultimately, there wasn’t a lot to get out of Devil’s Whorehouse.

Clearly not a lot of effort was meant for this kind of project. It could easily get lumped in with the Venoms and Celtic Frosts of the scene, but most of the writing here just falls flat on its face and doesn’t live up to the standards there. Thankfully it isn’t an overly long effort, only reaching about a half hour of runtime. Either way, hard pass for me.

Here we have a special crew: ladies and gentlemen, Felix 1666 proudly presents the Brazilian champions of shitty artworks. "Devil's Whorehouse" might not be their prime example of idiocy, just remember "Sadismo". However, the cover is ridiculous. But I have to stay fair. And honestly speaking, this is no big challenge for me, because Power from Hell play very casual black thrash. Absolutely reduced to the essentials and without any surprising twists and turns, they spit their snot into the audience. To call the pretty dull production crude is still a euphemism, but probably this is exactly the sound the band asked for. No high gloss, please!

Either way, I would be wronging the dudes if I did not emphasize the fact that they deliver at least one big surprise. "Long Road to Hell" shocks with a bluesy pattern and sounds like the criminal brother of "Night Prowler", a number from 1979 which was performed by an almost unknown band from Down Under. Sorry, I have forgotten the name of these Australian dudes - cannot keep all these irrelevant formations in my mind, but I guess the song was the closer of an album called "Highway to Power from Hell". It doesn't matter... I do not know whether I like this experiment of the South American trio, but their typical tracks make me grin maliciously. These lads are surely not the world's best instrumentalists, but they have a knack for effective, compact tracks. They create filthy gems by using simple means. I do not say that each and every track delivers such an explosive mix that a poser dies somewhere in the world whenever "Devil's Whorehouse" is doing its rounds on the turntable. Nevertheless, some tracks are great.

For example, "Revelations of the Flesh" speeds along the metallic highway and represents the majority of the tracks very well; short, simple, straightforward. There's not much left to discover after having heard the album for the first time. Okay, "Black Forest" seems to be their dark opera with a playtime of almost five minutes and a spooky first half. It remains the only song which creates an atmospheric depth and it meets the further highlights, especially the first tracks of the A side, on an equal footing. But to avoid misunderstandings: Power from Hell do not deliver interwoven patterns, hidden technical details or backward messages. Anyway, the pretty hideous riffs from the highly respected schools of Bathory, Venom and Aura Noir still spread their fascination.

All in all, the music will convince black thrash freaks who like the sub genre in general and those who have built an altar for Quorthon's debut. (The riffing of the ninth track seems to be borrowed from "Necromancy".) I enjoy the album as well, albeit some lyrics suck. The climax of poetic bullshit is the line "Women scream in pleasure while being raped". Hopefully, the guys will never get caught by some starved homosexual berserks, because I don't want to hear the musician's screams of pleasure. And, as already mentioned, the artwork is dubious as always. Thank God, I am immune against this form of covers. That's why I did not buy the CD - and I will not tell you that I preferred to get the vinyl format.

This review first appeared on the Deaf Sparrow Facebook page on 6 June 2016. Written by Stanley Stepanic.

Listen, I like Satan metal. I like cruddy guitars, bass static, and cardboard box drums with torn throat wailing over it. And if you do too but know not where to search, just check out basically everything Hells Headbangers releases and what they carry, done. It's your one-stop shop for all things Satan metal. They clearly have the market cornered on Satan, in metal, but at what cost? Sometimes at the cost of quality I'd say. Why won't anyone else say it? Here's an example.

Do we really need more bands like this? I don't know, to be honest. Truthfully, Brazil's Power From Hell provide a fun listen, and clearly they're doing something right based on their 12K+ likes on Facebook, unless they're bought. Note to self, check how many of their fans are from Indonesia. But it's more likely it's because they sound something like Venom if they were actually worth listening to, ever, but that, then, allows that crap band to still exist. I'd rather they didn't, so apologies for permitting even the name to pass my lips and then hands.

Regardless, this album has all of the sound of classic Satanic metal down. It's practically a timewarp back to Bathory's D&D poster-plastered basement, and for that it succeeds on all levels. The riffing is crude and at times, effective, and the blasphemy is woven into the sound. All of the typical cruddiness I mentioned earlier in this review? Well, there's a Satan on the cover, a nun with taped breasts, and riffs that sort of approximate what it would sound like, so yeah, that's all here. Beyond that, nothing more, but did you expect more? The artwork should make it clear, they rely on classic Satanic thematics and everything recorded through tin foil with solos that sound like they should be on Fail Blog. For that I praise them, but if you were expecting anything beyond mainstream underground Satan, might be a good idea to skip this one. Also good for those of you with a nun costume fetish, so you got that, if it's worth anything.