Gore. Blood. Pus. The subject was controversial, shocking and disgusting… probably 20 years ago. But nowadays, and after being touched (or molested, as you wish) by thousands of bands, there is no novelty in that lyrical style. Still, many bands seem to be obsessed with this kind of lyrics, which in most of the cases I just find more to be humorous rather than disgusting. And that is only talking about the lyrical aspect. In maybe 90% of the cases the music itself sucks. With this Portuguese band, formed back in 1997, what we have here is their third album, and I am more than satisfied with the very powerful music it presents. Even if the band name, the lyrical and visual image might evoke sounds of a brutal Death Metal band-for-the-sake-of-being-brutal, reality is without doubt far away. Yes they are a brutal Death Metal band, still their style is more controlled, to describe it in a way, and has more in common with bands like GOREFEST, DEICIDE, some MALEVOLENT CREATION and CARCASS, than your average genital-gore-grinder. The only thing that makes the band sound like your average brutal Death Metal band would be the vocals, and even in that aspect they are way better than most of the similar themed bands. I also detect a slight BOLT THROWER-ish sound. Add to that a very heavy, low down-tuned fat guitar sound, and a punishing drum sound (probably a bit, a bit polished for its own good) with very good and melodic guitar solos and then the lyrical aspect of the band goes in a far second level. So, the lesson here is to never consider the taste of a beer just because of the bottle. So who cares, when you headbang you do it for what the speaker vomits not for the pus invoked by the growler, which in this case is done in their native Portuguese, but might as well be done in any dialect and no one would notice. Killer band, killer sound, killer performance, but a clearly dead lyrical inspiration. www.facebook.com/hcgore, www.xtreemmusic.com