I had never heard of these guys prior to this release, full disclosure; I didn’t know they existed. They’ve been around since 1999, and since demo Opus I of that year, they’ve been extremely busy putting out a veritable shit load of music including 3 Eps, 4 split albums, 2 live albums and 6 full lengths (including this one, of course). Comprising of Z.P. (bass), D.P. (drums), A.C. (guitars) and R.Orca (vocals), these four lads have created a very robust gore filled record; nineteen tracks with the longest clocking in at a tidy 3:33 minutes… spoiler alert, it’s the album closer.

Having never heard them, I was going in completely blind. I imagined pig squeals and guttural vocals, a spastic monkey on drums and enough pinched harmonics to fill a red wagon. I’m glad I was wrong on those fronts, because what I got was thirty minutes of meat and gristle Death Metal. Beefy, blood dripping riffs are roasted over a spit of blasting drums, and thankfully not pig squeal vocals.

Things pop off in a slime spattered, zombie groaning way with “Ad Bizarrem Morem” two minutes and forty-two seconds worth of controlled chaos… and then things get violent. Cuerza Ferina is a brutal album, a sizzling bloody steak that crackles and pops in its own squalid sauce. Tracks like “Sinaxe Campas do Negro Breudo Sepúlcro Tafófobo”, “Congregação da Flama Felídea” and “Campas do Negro Breu” were the standout tracks, even though the album tracks are presented in such a way that it remains interesting song to song. In all honesty I was half expecting a fitting tribute to Last Days of Humanity, so even if they had been a fucking clone of those nasty bastards; I wouldn’t have gone home empty handed, right? They remind me of early Brujeria, with the unrelenting grind of Morbosidad on more than a couple tracks, this being a very good thing, indeed.

Death Metal has a rich history of track heavy albums, Carcass and Napalm Death both have debuts and sophomore albums with over ten tracks. There are moments when I was hoping these songs were longer, the shorter bursts of speed seem like un-fleshed out ideas that could have been given more life and a few of the shorter tracks also left me like, “holy fucking shit” so, this is a minor grump, to an otherwise enjoyable record that wades through blood and pus, all the while making me wish I knew Portuguese. The production lends to a warm, organic mix that adds to the enjoyment of the whole album; it makes it hit harder is a good way to put it. Don’t let the number of tracks be a deterrent, this is a flesh ripping, beast of an album. Definitely recommended.

Fcebook.com/hcgore

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