Three cassette-only releases from the Portuguese label
MR’s resident consumer of blackened nastiness, Jason Guest lends his surely-they-must-be-pulp-by-now ears to three recent cassette-only releases from Portugal’s purveyors of music and art without borders, Signal Rex (website, Facebook, Bandcamp):
- Snorri – Putrid Black Fucking Metal
- Segregación Primordial – I
- Blood Chalice – Demo 2016
Snorri – Putrid Black Fucking Metal
Release: 8 July 2016
The debut demo from Australia’s Snorri does exactly what it says on the tin: putrid black fucking metal. Recorded in a cave, released on cassette, destined to burn in the underground for eternity, this is raw, filthy and ruthlessly fierce. Ablaze with rapid riffs, blast beats aplenty and a reverb-drenched gruesome vocal, while the obligatory ambient opener ‘Exorcism Masturbation’ and the black metal blast of ‘Black Fucking Mass’ are standard fare, the chaotic mass that is ‘Homo Homini Lupus’ is an outstanding barrage of disorder and turmoil enhanced by the low-fi quality of the recording. A feat in itself. The cacophony continues with ‘Abel De Larue’, its densely-clouded and clotted air cloying, and closing track ‘Into The Endless Dark’, at an all-too-short 74-seconds, casting us into the maelstrom. An intriguing and vicious experience.
7 out of 10
Track list:
- Exorcism Masturbation
- Black Fucking Mass
- Homo Homini Lupus
- Abel De Larue
- Into The Endless Darkness
Segregación Primordial – I
Release: 8 July 2016
Revelling on the muck and the mire and malevolence of the Chilean death metal underground since 2011, Segregación Primordial like it raw. Savage, devastating and devouring in its ruthless brutality, the four tracks here blaze at fuck-you miles-per-hour and burn with a blackened and scorched intensity that is curiously pleasing. A six-minute ‘Intro’ whose esoteric mysteries grow into utter devastation followed by the manic and near-chaotic eight- and ten-minute ‘Autocontemplacion’ and ‘Immersion’ is a sickening and disturbing experience. But it’s with ‘Bonus’ (really? They couldn’t come up with a title?) where the band’s skills converge. What Segregación Primordial do with this colossal chunk of cacophonous and enigmatic might is phenomenal. Where the other track sometimes suffer from the lo-fi recording, here it serves the piece in its entirety.
7 out of 10
Track list:
- Intro
- Autocontemplacion
- Immersion
- Bonus
Blood Chalice – Demo 2016
Release: 8 July 2016
Savage. Ruthless. Relentless. Remorseless. Vicious. I could go on listing adjective after adjective that would somehow but not quite approximate the experience of this debut demo from Finland’s Blood Chalice. But I won’t. Just listen to it. It’s fucking nasty. There’d better me more to come.
8 out of 10
Track list:
- Desecration of the INRI
- The Descent
- Necromancy
- Saint Fornicator
- Unholy Gratification
One of these days I’ll challenge myself to listen.
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