I.N.R.I.

In 1987 three bands put out three albums that still nowadays (I don’t care about the personal tastes) are regarded as cult and innovation for the growing extreme metal scene: Mayhem (Deathcrush EP), Napalm Death (Scum) and this I.N.R.I. I hope I didn’t forget anything. There was a quite big difference between these brutal assaults but both Mayhem and Sarcofago helped the newborn black/death metal scene. Aesthetically, Sarcofago were one of the very first groups to use the black metal face painting too.

Musically, the intensity and the rawness of this album could easily level your house. If in “Satanic Lust” we can find punkish/speed influences, “Desecration Of Virgin” shows no mercy with its high dosage of blast beats and up tempos. The guitars' sound is fuzzy in the guitars and so already very BLACK METAL ( I believe they picked this up from Sodom’s “In The Sign Of Evil” EP). For this check out also the mid paced first part of “Nightmare” with sudden speed restarts.

The vocals are very distorted: they are always very Venom worshipping but with a more extreme touch and, sometimes, they are followed by pure growls or screams. The sound is almost revolutionary. The snare drum sounds very 80s style; it’s so pounding and martial that almost erases the bass drum work. The title track is quite hilarious with the screams “Fuck You Jesus Christ!” but it’s unbelievably powerful with the never ending blast beats.

“Satanas” is well know to most of the blacksters around for the unmistakable black/speed riff at the beginning that appears so often during the whole song. There's obviously no melody concession or will to slow down. “Ready To Fuck” is great for the doom mid paced part where you can hear Wagner say “Suck Me…”; while the mythical “Deathrash” is so “famous” for the great, pure blast beats malevolence.

All in all, I can recommend this album to any black/death metal fan who wants to add a new piece to his personal collection in the long way to discovery of the extreme metal roots.