Here's some moderately heavy hardcore/punk from Par?, Brazil with a good mix of faster chord progressions and strong choruses with what I would probably call some post-hardcore leanings and few rock based riffs. The vocals are straight up gruff shouts with some gang backups on occasion, and the group vocals actually sound really fucking good. There's almost too much going on to some small degree. I'm all for variety, and I like some of the borderline slap bass playing, but some of the more rocked out guitar parts and solos and the tribal percussion that arise on occasion aren't really adding anything to the songs. In fact, I would argue that they're bogging down tracks that would otherwise be forceful and to the point. The melody is fine, and the non-groovy heaviness is a nice touch, but they need to speed things up a bit and shorten the running times. I gotta say though, the production needs work. The sound is pretty good for what they're doing, and I really like the fact that the bass is audible, but the vocals are too far out front. The drums sound alright, the guitars aren't bad but could be better, but really they just need to mix the vocals back and then give everything a little extra kick. Some of the songs have different recordings, and though I can't read Portuguese I think the liner notes state that there are some compilation and demo tracks added on at the end of the disc. The layout's alright, but it's not that great. The front cover's the only thing that I really like. Everything else gets a bit jumbled with text all over the place in fonts that aren't the cleanest or the most well arranged. There are some color band photos, but the inner sleeve with the lyrics is all black and white. All of the lyrics (and text) is in Portuguese, so I can't go into any detail about the content, but I think it's probably somewhat socio-political just because I can sort of gauge some of the song titles and the overall look of the imagery would suggest such an approach (granted the cheesy "angry Mickey Mouse" design under the CD tray is, well... less than necessary). It might sound stupid, but I think these guys would be a much better band if they were to trim the fat and just play straightforward crossover hardcore. They're really good at the faster, more typical riffing and song structures, but as they try to experiment with some slightly different influences they end up taking potentially awesome songs and making them drag on for too long and get kind of boring.
[N? Figuerdo]
Running time - 41:32, Tracks: 16
[Notable tracks: Um Belo Dia Pr? Morrer, O Heroi, Kripteia]
Delinquentes - [email protected]
