No Violence "Consensus" CD
[Cospe Fogo]
Fuck yeah. This is excellent metallic hardcore from Brazil with an intelligent socio-political message. The raw recording is right in line with what they're doing, and musically this band covers an enormous range. A lot of it would have been right at home in the mid-90's metallic hardcore boom alongside Earth Crisis (circa "Firestorm"), Outspoken, Undertow, etc. There's a perfect mix of chugga chugga mosh, old school hardcore chord progressions, and even some Gorilla Biscuits-esque melody in tracks like "Rádio Livre". The main difference is that all of the songs are less than three minutes, and as a whole this is a bit more diverse than say, Earth Crisis. Vocally a wide range is covered, from shouting and screaming to singing and speaking, as well as the obligatory gang backup chants and even some guttural growls. And musically there are some elements of grindcore and crossover thrash on occasion, so... this is far from one-sided. Short but sweet ragers like the energetic "El Insurgente" and "Friendly Fascism" are just classic. The sound is rough, but it works. The bass is thick and plays a large role, the drums sound natural, the guitars are heavy and just barely muddy, and the vocals sound fine. It's a pretty dry, dense sound, so I wouldn't mind hearing them with a cleaner recording, but I'm not at all bothered by what they've got going on here. The packaging is one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. The artwork is relatively simple and minimal, as is the use of color, but the package itself is amazing. The CD comes in a pouch in the back of a small spiral-bound book of sorts. There are seven pages of lyrics (in both English and Portuguese, with translations into the other language wherever necessary), seven pages of in-depth song explanations (all in Portuguese), and they've included a couple of pages of xeroxes that contain English translations of the song explanations. Very, very nice. I'm impressed. The lyrics are a bit more simple than the explanations: "Our blood's lubricated the gears of the American state machine. Our liberty has always been an aggression to their plan of world domination. How dare we want control over our lives? This is insubordination!" The explanations go into much more detail: "Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, countries where - as it was planted inside the newspaper at that time - the 'communist threat' was being spread, had their conservative forces formed by the church, the military, rich industrialists, and big land owners, instigated by the USA to subvert the will of the people through armed interventions and restore the natural order. But this communist threat was always an excuse used by the US to get total control over the governments of these countries. Most of the governments deposed weren't even socialists, but nationalists, in the sense that they preferred to watch the interests of their populations rather than American ones. This cannot be tolerated, as American freedom is based upon everyone else's enslavement..." Awesome. Definitely recommended. (7/10)
Running time - 26:30 (approximately), Tracks: 17
[Notable tracks: Consensus of the Content, Rádio Livre, El Insurgente, Friendly Fascism]
Cospe Fogo Gravações - cospexfogo@uol.com.br

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