I was really looking forward to this Brazilian hardcore band's first full-length, so I'm psyched to finally be checking it out. Included are 12 tracks of heavy, moshy hardcore with a little bit of a metal tinge, sort of in the NYHC style with a little of that extra groove to it. Most of the songs from the "Strength!" CD EP appear here in re-recorded form as well. The vocals are really gruff shouts that, while nothing new, are definitely a bit different than the norm, and do add to the band's appeal for me (especially during some of the tradeoffs between lead/backing vocalists). Musically there's not a lot of melody here, they tend to stick with chunky chord progressions and moderate tempos that never get too fast or too slow, very rarely messing with some dissonant textures or very minimal melodic tendencies. The drumming definitely gets more involved though, sometimes hinting at subtle tribal patterns and lots of creative fills and such - most notably in "Contradictions". "Strength" opens with one of the slower and more powerful rhythms herein and is also among the more in your face tracks, while "One Step Forward" is significantly faster and has more of a classic hardcore stance, which is sort of rare for these guys. For some reason there's about five minutes of blank space before the last song, "Questions", even though it's not an unlisted song or anything, which is sort of frustrating when it comes to continuity. The recording suits what they're doing fine. The bass tone plays a good role behind the guitars, the drums are resonant and sound as they should, the vocals have a lot of clarity, and the mix is full without sounding either too polished or too raw. There's definitely a very slight hint of ruggedness in there somehow, but it fits and doesn't detract from what they're doing. The layout looks really cool and consistent, the jewel case comes in a slip sleeve, and even the CD-Rom design looks similar. All of the artwork follows a generally blue set of colors with a high contrast sort of revolutionary/protest poster style, highly influenced by Shepard Fairey. The intro text to the booklet is all in Portuguese, but the lyrics are in English and deal with mostly personal issues, at times hinting at larger topics. It's all pretty straightforward: "I will fight for my beliefs, I don't care if they're not part of the majority, Bow down to no one, Can't let it go down, I'm the one that always will question your so called truth..." The CD-Rom includes some cool band photos as well as a nice video for "True Brotherhood" that continues the blue sort of theme and has quality footage of the band performing in a vacant room. Simple, but still pretty slick. I'm definitely into this band, and this is a good progression from their EP that stays right in line with their style. I'd like to see these guys get more attention in other countries outside of Brazil, because what they're doing is definitely something that would be appreciated in the US and Europe as well. Good work.
[53 Hardcore]
Running time - 28:00 (approximately), Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Left Behind, Contradictions, Strength, Face It]
Questions - http://www.datoro.com/questions/
