Hunter

Although making noise together since 1998 “Hunter” is only the second full length album by those Death Metal warriors from Sao Paulo. The follow-up to the 2009 release “Blessed Black Spirit” is a nice slab of fast and heavy yet catchy music.

After a short intro the listener gets introduced to the riffing by the guitarists Fabio Ferreira and Gustavo Bonfa. While the chords sound pretty familiar in the first place I recognized quite some variation. The tempo is sometimes slowed down for a few moments before the main riff is presented again with some added twists. Drummer Alan Marques is doing a fine job of maintaining the tempo and adding enough variation to keep things interesting. His fills and blast-beat attacks never feel out-of-place but are perfectly woven into the songs highlighting certain sections to create additional tension.

It is pretty obvious that Sangrena are a unit of technically gifted musicians but without proper songwriting this would not mean too much. Fortunately the experience of two decades pays off. The structure of each song is kept stringent and while there can be found some quite impressive soloing it never gets annoying. Sangrena manage to walk the thin line between showing some technical prowess without losing the listener.

In fact the album is quite melodic and while I would not label it as “Melodic Death Metal” even fans of that genre could find a lot to like here. The sometimes even melancholic lead guitars are a perfect contrast to the unforgiving and brutal riffs attacks.
There are also some very nice and atmospheric passages where acoustic guitars are used in short breaks or some dreamy melodies take over in laid-back parts. Generally speaking there is a lot of variation to be found on “Hunter” with the tempo ranging from ultra-fast to slow and dripping.

The singer Luciano Fedel has an amazing voice. His growling is pretty deep but all lyrics can easily be understood. The production values are high giving the music a lot of power and making each instrument perfectly audible. Overall the sound is neither Old School nor too modern.

The artwork is interesting and slightly disturbing. I am not totally sure what can be seen here but I guess this is the main protagonist. While Sangrena might never get the recognition like some of the peers they surely would deserve a lot more attention.