Bloody Vengeance

Vulcano's first proper studio album, following their previous year's live in-concert debut, 1986's Bloody Vengeance is one of those furious, compact blasts of manic thrash that Slayer's 28-minute thrill ride Reign in Blood turned into an idealized genre benchmark -- forever set to be emulated by all pretenders to the speed metal throne. Of course it should be noted that Bloody Vengeance actually arrived around the same time as Reign in Blood and effectively outblasts it by lasting only 23 minutes; but where the latter brought technically proficient thrash to its maximum expression, the former featured messy black metal more in line with Venom's seminal efforts of a few years earlier. All things maintained in their proper perspective, then, they are brothers in spirit if nothing else, since Vulcano's effort also achieved a heightened level of extremity heretofore unmatched by their leading Brazilian competitors: Dorsal Atlantica, Mutilator, Korzus, the then-till ripening Sepultura, and even the perennial cheap-seats favorite Sarcofago, whose apocalyptic I.N.R.I. was still a year away. Strapped for cash as usual, Vulcano had had only 24 hours with which to record and mix Bloody Vengeance, and it certainly shows in the primal, often unfinished sounding results. But tracking brutalizing numbers like "Dominios of Death" "Spirits of Evil" and "Holocaust" live inside the studio, with minimal opportunities for overdubs, only helped fuel their hellish flames that much higher, and goes some way to explaining their hilariously inept lyrics, which are really half the fun. And even though most of these songs comprehend only top speed and conclude almost before they've begun, the band eventually takes the time to change up the pace and stretch their abilities on the more varied title track and the prognosticating number, "Death Metal." Still, Bloody Vengeance is a very, very rough ride, not geared to appease heavy metal perfectionists, but rather those who delight in its most outrageous and challenging of conventions -- this is the stuff that bands like Darkthrone took as gospel. [Because bassist Zhema lost the original master tapes to a conniving foreign label, Cogumelo Records' CD reissue of Bloody Vengeance was transferred directly from vinyl! So don't expect any improvement upon the original article's already substandard audio fidelity.] ~ Eduardo Rivadavia