Well, I’m really a freaky fan of this band and so maybe the readers could think that I’d be overstating my comments on the present release by Bode Preto. However, it is a fact that all their previous releases are genuine pearls of fury and evilness, whose noisy and fast sound is able to take you to hell completely hypnotized by their intense and breathtaking brand of extreme metal. For our delight, “Mystic massacre” keeps the flame of musical aggression burning high and is another masterpiece of brutality made by these Brazilian guys.

By the way, the line-up is almost the same that recorded the powerful “Inverted blood”, with the great Josh S. doing all vocals and guitar with the usual excellence and Adelson Souza (from the classic The Endoparasites, plus Diabolic Force, ex-Grave Desecrator) blasting everything on drums, but now they have a the presence of another legend of the South American old school metal, Rodrigo Magalhães, “simply” responsible for the drums and vocals in bands like Holocausto (yes, the legendary Brazilian band that recorded the classic “Campo de extermínio” in 1987!) and, more recently, Impurity.  So, with such a mighty line-up, it’s impossible to find anything less than pure chaotic music here!

In fact, since the beginning, it’s impossible not to feel the blood trembling inside the veins immediately after the short intro, which seems to be exactly calculated to warn everyone that the apocalypse will start and nothing will be left untouched by the omnipresence of their bestial music. The guitar work in “Deep reality” is scaring to death, really amazing, as well during the whole album. Josh’s ability to create the perfect atmosphere for feelings of destruction and anger is really admirable. Besides this, his riffs are conducted in a hypnotic way, so that one is swollen by this intense hellish atmosphere into a spiral of delirium and chaos. It’s awesome! All songs are filled by Josh’s guitars, whose style is incomparable: he makes heavy, raw and sharp riffs with a melodic/melancholic feel which I’ve never heard anywhere else in almost 30 years of underground metal. “Mystic massacre”, for instance, is a song which can show you this originality, a characteristic that is indeed a Bode Preto’s trademark and which is very difficult to attain in the myriad of bands of the scene.

By the way, this title track is devastating as fuck, as well as “Maze of mirrors”, a short and straight-to-the-point song that lasts only 1:11. In fact, almost all songs are short in comparison to the average death/black compositions, showing that Bode Preto is not really worried about being the most technical and complex band. The guys here want to express their feelings objectively, despite all the subjectivities involved when you pay attention to their lyrics and concepts used by Josh in the creation of this album. In their previous release (the aforementioned “Inverted blood”), this feature had already caught my attention, because an accurate look into their compositional universe and imagery reveals an intelligent band that really regards each detail as part of an work of art, and not simply as another extreme metal album, as many releases done these days. No, here everything is carefully planned and has a meaning, leaving no room for random ideas.

The extremely impressive front cover and the album title, for instance, are products of Josh’s tireless mind and only these aspects would deserve a full article, given its deepness. As well as their first full length, this album brings a painting in the cover, this time by the Brazilian romantic painter Pedro Américo called “Tiradentes Esquartejado” (1893), making reference to an old fact from the history of Brazil, a country which is said to be pacific, but whose history is deeply marked by violence, repression and authoritarianism, just like the historical slaughter of American natives known as “Mystic massacre”, which happened in USA in the Pequot War around the Mystic River in the 17th century. All these past references dialogue with the present state of human society, which unfortunately developed technologically, but forgot to evolve in terms of justice, freedom and consciousness.

So, as well as the death of Tiradentes, who was butchered and exhibited in public square, for the pleasure of those who were hungry for blood and violence, and the massacre of the Pequot people, what we see nowadays in terrorism, religious conflicts, racism, homophobia, civil and international wars, urban and state violence (fuck the police!) and even in the media (remember the society of the spectacle!) are a reflex of this evil that lives inside this selfish and ordinary human race. In the words of Josh himself, the idea is to bring the reflection about power abuse, the absence of life value and, mainly, on the general lack of awareness of people, who are butchered in their ordinary everyday life and constrained by their stupid daily routine without noticing it. For those zombie people, only the applause is left, just like we listen in “Outro”, at the end of the album. Well, all this long comment means that you should listen to Bode Preto’s music paying attention to the lyrics, which, as everything in “Mystic massacre”, are not here just to fill a gap, but are full of meaning and metaphors that make this release so special.

Coming back to the music, it’s impossible to highlight this os that song, because they all make a coherent whole and follow a consistent compositional line. So, you can listen “Absurds of violence”, “Dark obsession”, “Wraith” or “Seizures of fear” in random order that you’ll not repent, I assure you! All songs are great, fast, explosive, fiery, noisy and raging. Well, as I had the luck of seeing them playing live, I can also assure you that this is an unique experience of extreme metal hypnosis, since I was completely caught by their machine of riffs, heavyness and blast beats and was in total awe for the whole gig.

Well, in short, I could stay here writing the whole day about this new masterpiece of the bestial arts, but I’ll leave for the listener the task of discovering many more details and emotions present in this impressive release by Bode Preto, which is simply imperative for all maniacs who are into extreme metal done with intelligence and full knowledge. Long live to Bode Preto!

Critiano Passos