Return of Evil

This should probably be treated as the warm-up to Far Beyond Existence seeing as it was here that the new line-up played together for the first time and recorded the four tracks for Return of Evil live in the studio, which sounds like some sort of test. Then again, little is too difficult for the fearsome skills of Torture Squad, though it is a shame that guitarist André Evaristo was out of the band before being able to participate in a follow-up to his awesome swansong Esquadrão de Tortura. The replacements were new six-stringer Rene Simionato and Mayara Puertas, another female vocalist after the immensely positive experience of having session member Fernanda Lira on the previous album.

These changes seem to have made the music take a more deathly turn, with Puertas’s deep roar verging on guttural: she is introduced in vicious style as the title track builds up with a lengthy bass solo and erupts suddenly with screams and double bass aplenty. There are many other styles on offer over a creative 26 minutes, featuring death thrash seriousness on ‘Swallow Your Reality’ and ‘Dreadful Lies’, while the title track is rather more capacious, allowing for slower rhythmic work and a serviceable yet basic groove to close proceedings. Of the two more straightforward tracks, ‘Dreadful Lies’ proves interesting after the verses are out of the way, fitting in impressive fretwork in the vein of At the Gates’ maestro Anders Björler, as well as a moody slower breakdown.

Of course, Return of Evil wouldn’t be a proper EP release without something a bit strange, so it falls to ‘Iron Squad’ to make a name for itself by following up acoustic folk guitar with terrifically free soloing that takes on a kind of heavy Iron Maiden vibe, as suggested by the song title; the middle part descends into a typical death thrash workout before transforming via rhythmic trickery into epic nostalgic melodeath riffs, finally ending back where it started with more skilful acoustic jamming. It’s something quite different and a very cool way to mark out the release. Of course, after that kind of praise, I’m going to tell you to seek out Return of Evil even if only for ‘Iron Squad’, though the other songs make a decent compliment to the full-length released last year. The beginning of what promises to be a fine new era for the Brazilian titans of true heaviness.


-- May Diamhea's feat of 100 reviews in 7 days remain unbeaten --