And Brazilian Death Metal kings are back again, after 2012’s
“To The Death” and 2013’s
“17 Years of Chaos” (a box set with a documentary about the band’s history). Yes, São Paulo’s
NERVOCHAOS is back to the front with a new album,
“The Art of Vengeance”.
The band’s style is the same since their beginning: Death Metal the simple way, inspired by the scenes from Florida and Sweden, but now, they appear in a more clean way of sounding, for the band got a great improvement in terms of technique, a fruit from the line up stabilized since 2010. But to older fans from their work, don’t be worried: the band is the same from before, just a bit more evolved and near for future battles.
Guiller’s vocals still the guttural (but with some high pitches here and there), and he and
Quinho forms a compact and strong guitar duo,
Felipe bass technique is even better than presented on
“To The Death”, and the veteran
Edu on drums shows some new tricks on his technique (he still plays hard and fast, but with some tempo changes in the middle of songs). The great evolution is from musical arrangements, who were done and worked pretty cautiously.
The sound production from
Alex Azzali (Who worked previously with
ANCIENT, MORTUARY DRAPE, IMAGO MORTIS, and many others), with the sound engineering done by
Felipe Eregion (vocalist/guitarist from
UNEARTHLY) and
Daniel Escobar (guitarist from
SAVANT and
VOCIFERAX) gave a new approach for
NERVOCHAOS work, sound more clean and dry, but still heavy as Hell and brutal as always. And the artwork done by
Marco Donida (guitar player from
MATANZA, ENTERRO and
HELLSAKURA) is pretty simple, rescuing the influence from earlier Death Metal albums’ artwork from the 90’s.
12 perfect songs awaits us all, but the better moments of the album are the brutal
“The Harvest” (a more traditional song for the band, but some great arrangements arise here and there),
“For Passion Not For Fashion” (where the musical evolution is more perceptible, especially on drums and vocals),
“The Devil’s Work” (with a not so fast tempo, where bass and guitars are extremely fine), the bitter
“From Below and Not Above” (a slower song with great work from bass),
“Shadows of Destruction” (with some kind of Swedish Death Metal influence, and great arrangements on bass and drums), the more traditional and with touches from Thrash Metal
“Legacy of Pain”, and their personal version for
HEADHUNTER D.C. song
“Lightless”.
And there’s a bonus: a DVD, called
“Warriors on the Road II”, with a documentary for
“To The Death” tour full of great moments, and some hilarious ones (the Argentina’s shows are the best, so see this part. Even your
Big Daddy appears discretely on “
Panzer Fest I” takes), another one for the recording of
“The Art of Vengeance” recording sessions and one for the tributes to
HEADHUNTER D.C. and
STOMACHAL CORROSION. But the best parts are the two shows from
NERVOCHAOS on
Roça’n’Roll Festival (one great Metal festival on Brazil), and one on
CCJ.
NERVOCHAOS is a hard working band in the Brazilian Metal scene, and always do more than asked.