The Circle of the Crow

Wow, a whole circle of crows has flown over from the beautiful Brazilian horizonte… sorry, horizon… but they do look nice and fitting, adding an unnerving blacky touch to the otherwise naturally mirthful proceedings… cause we have a lot of reasons to celebrate tonight, with the Brazilian veteranos back on the field with full force!

The mist in their camp has been dissipated, finally, and Vladimir Korg, the band vocalist who put an end to his spell with the compatriots Chakal a few years back, sees no reason why he shouldn’t try marching some more on the contemporary metal arena under the crystal-clear weather… sorry, circumstances. There's no one else in sight from his old colleagues, but what it takes is to surround yourself with capable artists from operational Brazilian outfits (the thrashers Hell’s Punch, the melo-death metal outfit D.A.M., the power metal cohort Age of Artemis), and to start moshing with gusto and exultation, creating more old school thrash phantasmagorias for the hungry metal lover. But no German titles, please; those boded disaster some 30 years earlier when the band’s last full-length embraced the numetal/groovy vogues with badly disguised aggro-enthusiasm. Didn’t work, on any level conceivable, this suicidal metamorphosis, the guys hanging themselves on numerous trees around the Amazon Jungle as a gesture of belated repentance.

But Korg is back, also surrounded by chakals... sorry, crows this time, harbingers of high quality music those birds above all, shooting every poser in the vicinity with the impetuous blitzkrieg wonder “My Inner Monster”, the guys also adding nice atmospheric touches to the fervent retro thrash rifforama. Sounds like a phantasmagorical deal this cut, by all means, and with the catchy theme from the “Halloween” cinematic blockbuster added to the fore on “Over My Dead Body”, the setting reaches truly delightful proportions, not without more high-speed thrashing served around the soundtrack attempts. Korg sounds more sinister here, with an overt deathly shade stitched to his traditionally venomous tirades, which sound both subdued and authoritative, and also tangibly threatening on the dark doom-laden saga “The Blackmail of God”, this composition also crossing over the realms of death with its dramatic vehemence. One can’t expect anything less from a piece titled “The Tempest” than all-out bashing retro thrash, and this is what the listener gets exposed to, a jubilant mosh till death stirred on this tiring roller-coaster.

Save for a couple of more ominous macabre overtones, this recording isn’t exactly a return to the band’s serious near-progressive roots as Korg is more interested in the headbanging side of the spectre, giving his new comrades all the freedom to lash high-speed razor-sharp riffs at will, from here to the belo horizon and back. No complaints whatsoever, the entertainment is still on a fairly high level all over. Fogs, smogs and mists have been swept away with ease, no visible hindrances standing on the man’s way, least of all flirtations with dubious musical currents. And, he doesn’t really need to stone the crows the next time around, or go astray again for partnerships with other fellow thrash metal practitioners… it’s quite obvious that his inner monster only reflects classic thrash skirmishes… the more phantasmagorical and deadlier, the better.