The Black Vomit

Back in June 2022, I had mentioned in my review of Sarcófago's 1987 full-length, I.N.R.I., here on Metal Archives that I had plans to review the band's 1986 debut demo, "The Black Vomit". It only took me about 10 months, but I'm finally getting around to reviewing it. Just like the band's debut album, this demo is crawling with abrasive brutality that would leave an everlasting impact on the world of extreme metal. Despite its limited tracklisting and short running time, Sarcófago's "The Black Vomit" demo is truly worth a listen for any metalhead looking to dig into the confines of South American metal.

This demo contains 3 tracks that add up to a total running time of approximately 7 minutes. It starts off with an intro track titled "Recrucify". The track is comprised of ominous wind/vortex sound effects, a foreboding incantation growled out presumably by frontman Wagner Antichrist, and sound effects of hammering & screaming that are used to depict Jesus Christ being crucified. It's safe to say an intro track like that sets up the atmosphere for this demo to send a potent blend of morbid and blasphemous metal into the listener's eardrums. That track is the skin above the skeleton. The meat and bones lie within the 2 tracks that follow: the title track and "Satanas". The title track and "Satanas" are songs that would be featured on The Laws of Scourge and I.N.R.I. respectively. Make no mistake, those 2 songs prove their worth. They're both jam packed with thrashing riffs of mayhem courtesy of Wagner Antichrist and Butcher. Gerald Incubus accompanies the guitars with his bass playing of an equal intensity. Drummer Leprous brings it all together with his hard hitting beats of doom and bone rattling blast beats. Wagner Antichrist bellows out some of the most bestial sounding death growls for a demo released in '86. That description also holds true on 1987's I.N.R.I. There are a few falsetto-ish screams on the 2 songs which would later be replaced with growls on the full-lengths that would follow this demo.

It appears to me that the only cassette rips of this demo widely available for public listening right now are ones that have suffered through generational degradation. The evidence I have to support this can be found on the 1986 "Warfare Noise" split album that Sarcófago contributed 3 songs to. Those 3 songs just so happen to be the same as the ones found on this demo. Not only are they the same songs, but they sound exactly the same minus the difference in audio quality. The audio quality of the songs featured on "Warfare Noise" is much cleaner than that of the demo cassette rips currently online. If the songs from the split album are indeed the same recordings as the ones on this demo, then it can be rightfully claimed that the demo's audio quality in its original, natural state wasn't too bad. I don't think others who've reviewed this demo have picked up on this, which resulted in some rather ignorant and unfair judgements of this demo's rawness. Nonetheless, I could be wrong about the tracks on the demo and split album being the same, so don't quote me on anything.

It would be an understatement to say Sarcófago's 1986 "The Black Vomit" demo was an important release. It set the stage for the band to become solidified into the folds of death metal, black metal, and war metal (a.k.a. bestial black metal) history through their following releases. I strongly recommend that fans of the demos from Sodom, Tormentor (pre-Kreator), and Hellhammer crank this demo at full volume and jam out if they haven't done so already. There is just no better way to spend 7 minutes than that. Favorite track: Satanas.