VULCANO (Tales From The Black Book) CD
South America, especially Brazil, is a well-known spot among thrash metal connoisseurs. Bands like Sarcófago, Korzus or Holocausto belong to the pioneers of the Brazilian scene who came up with their own merciless visions of extreme thrash metal in the 1980's. But before there was VULCANO, who released their first 7" in 1983, and considered to be the first thrash metal band in South America. Soon afterwards they recorded five records and a split with Nifelheim in 2006, that has been released in 2006 thru I Hate Records.
It seems, as if the Swedish label was very impressed from VULCANO's contribution for that split 7", because at the end of 2008 they re-issued the band's last album 'Tales from the Black Book' that has been originally released in 2004 on Renegados Records. If you look for some innovative thrash metal, then this album will disappoint you, but if you like your metal raw and unpolished then you should listen to it. Compared with some of the new thrash metal bands here's still more authenticity to find and some songs like 'The Bells of Death' or 'From the Black Metal Book' have a strong death metal bias.
'Fall of the Corpse' will be a feast for fans of early Slayer and owns riffs as sharp as a razor while 'Bestial Insane' is one of my favourite tracks. It's the only song, where the band slows down what is one of the reasons why this song is so damn eerie and black, not to forget about the harsh and tormented vocals. It would've been great if VULCANO had recorded more songs like this, but you can't have it all. Sometimes a spare groove is integrated into a few of the tracks without minimizing the entire ferocity of the sound. Only the production could be fuller and I still have problems to detect the bass, but otherwise it gives the album a slight punk feel what's definitely not bad in my world. Screw the posers and spend your money for something real. Here you'll find it!
(KK)