We have featured Brazil’s deathly Thrashers THE TROOPS OF DOOM quite a few times here at Voices From The Darkside already, which should easily indicate that this band means quite a lot to us. And this new album (their second, after two very strong EPs and a compilation) certainly isn’t about to change my opinion about them at all. They always come up with strong productions, pro-shot videos, have a great logo, killer cover artworks and most important of all: excellent songwriting and musicianship. So yes, these guys just seem to do everything right! While a lot of other bands these days try very hard to recapture the old school sound from the late ’80s / early ’90s (and often fail in that), former SEPULTURA guitarist Jairo “Tormentor” Guedz and his fellow members Alexandre Oliveira (drums), Marcelo Vasco (guitars) and Alex Kafer (vocals, bass) just have that in their DNA. Everything they write just sounds natural and easily appeals to all those of you, who still worship the originators of the extreme Metal underground. In case of THE TROOPS OF DOOM it is mainly bands that build their songs on strong riffs, like older SEPULTURA (for obvious reasons) or classic SLAYER, KREATOR or SODOM (the latter in particular for the rough vocal style). Since the material on “A Mass To The Grotesque” is mostly very uptempo, you won’t really hear any of those old CELTIC FROST influences on this album anymore, which were still present in some of the older songs. But that doesn’t really matter at all since there’s still enough variety in the writing to keep the record exciting and the listener interested (the songs clock in between three and a half and eight minutes). For the first time in the band’s history, there’s no cover song and no guest musicians on the album. But believe me, you won’t really miss either of that! The whole record sounds very powerful and has a great overall sound. It was recorded in their native country Brazil with producer André Moraes (who already worked with SEPULTURA on their “Dante XXI” album from 2006), mixed and mastered by none other than Jim Morris at Morrisound Studio in Tampa, Florida and Dan Seagrave was responsible for the cover artwork this time. So, all in all this is another very impressive release from THE TROOPS OF DOOM and thus of course highly recommended again! www.facebook.com/thetroopsofdoom, www.facebook.com/almamaterrecords