Sexual Carnage

"Why it's some smutty CD—that's even worse! Police, police..."

Sextrash missed some of the initial sparks in Brazilian extreme metal when other bands were already charging ahead with a build-up of releases around the mid-'80s, but they maintained the roaring, out-of-control fire along with Headhunter D.C., Expulser and Mystifier when their full length finally came out in '90—at a time when even the very first instigators such as Vulcano, Holocausto and even Mutilator passed on the torch as their extreme sound had already started to subside.

Sextrash's release is along the lines of the primitive composition of Sarcofago's "INRI," and this has other areas that started to go with the distincter thrash tendencies of "Rotting," however this has a few separated aspects of their own. "Sexual Carnage" is probably stashed away in every sexual deviants' collection whether they listen to extreme metal or not. This release is sleazy, not only by the lyrics, vocalist's stage-name, artwork and music, but by its dirty-all-over production as well, like you got to light one up after just being in the vicinity of it.

In some areas, the guitars are a little more varied and unorthodoxly played than you might think. One moment he'll pluck or strum a series of higher notes or some atypical sounding chord, then have another where they're about as savage as a caveman's club, ready to indiscriminately pound someone's skull in from their weighted force. Some of the riffing structures still bleed through from thrash, such as the rapidly played and excessive palm muting between every note that's a characteristic to the genre at large. D.D. Crazy, who coldcocked us with before-his-time speed on Sarcofago's "INRI," still has moments where his momentum is crack-of-the-whip fast, such as cramping his wrist and becoming a wall of snare until he smacks a cymbal or tom with a single wallop. There are even moments where the guitarist is playing a mid-range riff or just down-stroking a few strums but the drums are right there to off-set it by blasting away. D.D. Crazy isn't the most technically proficient drummer, even having a few areas where he misses the mark with hope-to-get-lucky fills, but he definitely makes up for accuracy with energy instead.

This is split up between different styles of vocals—going from deep, snarled and growled, to raspy, yelled and screamed. Though this has more of the higher toned variety used, which give it their all with voice-straining ferocity, such as continually extending these type of agonizing, give-me-a-painkiller screams and putting their vocal chords to the limits of endurance. The deeper ones can be an indistinguishable growl that sound like a cross between a feral dog's bark and schizophrenic mumble of syllables, but then there are a few brief growls that are wordless and are just there to heighten a moment—likely an intimidation to drive clear of its territory is more like it.

The average song length is about two and a half minutes, however, this starts to lose some deviation towards the end of the record. Like, at that point, they're resampling some similar structures and change-ups from the previous tracks. I mean, they're still tearing up a storm, but your brain knows it heard it before and the freshness starts to slightly wear off. Maybe tossing in a few more of those varied riffing structures might have helped keep the juices flowing to the very end. Though, overall, this is simple, raw and somewhat powerful in that they can entice a listener by laying down sounds that are clearly full of more than the usual holes and rips than the next guy's jeans. The guitarist is what holds this tainted recording together, though the drummer and vocalist have more expressive delivery than being profusely practiced or measured, like they're missing perspective of the consensus even more so than the next guy in extreme metal. Sextrash is still carrying on a prior form of music into the '90s from their country, though compared to a general band at that time this is self-destructive and had actual areas of scaring the hell out of its listeners. But unfortunately afterwards, a few members left and the second album turned the cheek to this depraved, we-got-our-pants-down-but-don't-care-what-you-think style of music here.