SARCOFAGO I.N.R.I. is this Brazillian bands first record. Sarcofago is fronted by Wagner Lamounier who had a couple of years before left an embryonic version of Sepultura to form his own band. The connection obviously paid off as Cogulmelo Records (who’d released Sepultura’s first record) put this one out as well. I’d heard this band back in the day and I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t really give them so much as the time of day. Now I’m going back over this I’m thinking this is an under rated classic. It basically follows on in the same vein as the first Sepultura EP and record but more intense. While Sepultura obviously went on to much bigger and better things, I’m going to say this is much better than the first Sepultura release. The playing is a lot tighter and the music far more intense and darker in feeling. The couple of years between him leaving Sepultura and forming Sacrofago really paid off musically for Wagner, if not financially.
From the outset this is pretty evil shit. It’s got some fast blast beats and probably besides Napalm Death and SOD I can’t think of many bands that were utilising the blast beat before this. The sound is an extension of what Celtic Frost, Bathory, Sodom and of course Sepultura were doing. This band had a pretty developed sense of riffage and utilising (simple) melodies as many of the more extreme bands kicking around at the time really didn’t.
The song titles are obviously leaning towards a very satanic angle. I’d basically class this as death metal, but in many ways it fits in with death metal as well. Either way its some evil shit and I really think any self respecting metalhed with an interest in the underground needs to check these dudes out.
Anyway there’s no point going into individual tracks on this as with many bands like this you either like this shit, or you don’t. I have to say I really like it. I’m thinking this is another band I really should have given more time in the day.
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