Rotting

Rotting is the forgotten Sarcofago album, brought down by the goodness of its predecessor and the even more thrash oriented sound of The Laws Of Scourge that marked new solutions. Anyway this album is again a quite killer one, less than I.N.R.I. but always enjoyable. The production is far cleaner and the technique is more polished and everything sounds less primordial.

Another thing to notice is the songs length: is longer that before showing a mature sense of songwriting with always brutal parts. The drum sound is less “bin sound” and less high in the volumes. The guitars are not tuned down like in the early past but they sound equally brutal and very fast. I believe that here they were more influenced by thrash metal in general and mostly by Slayer. The riffage, like in “Alcoholic Coma” remained always a bit black oriented but, with the cleaner sounds it’s less “ancient”.

The vocals are always on the borderline between thrash/death & black, so suffered. Anyway the more melodic intro and the long mid paced parts in “Tracy” shows a new form, a new way by Sarcofago. Very good the almost doom tempos with a good lead riffage. The most brutal things here, that reminds me the group’s past, are the hyper violent blast beats where the band really destroys everything.

It’s very hard for a death/thrash/black group to create always good and entertaining songs when the length is on 8 or 7 minutes but, a part from some, a bit filler riffs, everything is ok without being stunning like in I.N.R.I. There is always a great alternance of tempos so you really cannot rest…or better Rest In Peace…If the title track is basically divided in two: doom beginning and finish with blast beats in the middle, “Sex, Drink And Metal” is total old style and seems to come back to the debut.

The ritualistic “Nightmare” is the seal on this Rotting, an album that marks a better songwriting by these Brazilian pals that, without forgetting how to brutalize our ears, shows a more mature approach. A thing that will be disproved by the inhuman Hate album.