Taipei Metal

Review: Expurgo - Burial Ground

After putting out a collection of split releases and a demo, Belo Horizonte, Brazil's Expurgo finally came out with their debut full length album, Burial Ground, in 2010 on Black Hole Productions. The ten-year veterans of gore and grind have sharpened and honed their craft like a well-used machete, and are hitting the sick in the head masses with 29 tracks and 39 minutes worth of horror-inspired, full bore blood and guts grind.

Leading off Burial Ground is “Blast of Truth, a blazing track of pure grind. With gravel throated vocals courtesy of Egon and desperate backing proto-grind screams from guitarist Phillipe, this track is heavy on the groove. Precise and pummeling are the words that spring to mind like a serial killer from the shadows on the next song, “Only the Depressive Trades”, a Napalm Death-inspire approach to old school death and grind with some punk panache thrown in.  Egon possesses a rapid fire vocal delivery throughout the disc that breathes thick, flammable sputum, while Phillipe and drummer Anderson channel Terrorizer's Jesse Pintado, the grindfather himself, and Pete Sandoval respectively.

One track oozes seamlessly into the next on this effort, and as always with grind, things can seem a bit repetitious, but the songs are short enough that this seeming flaw can be disregarded for the simple fact that no song is long enough to get old. It's done long before it has the opportunity. Blink, and the next blunt instrument of torture has been put to flesh.

Expurgo aren't afraid to get filthy, crusty and apocalyptic on tracks such as “Trapped” and “Nothing Becomes Ruin”, which utilizes rapid tap blast that stutters into pit pushing punk breakdowns, creepy crawling into slow chug. Fresh dangers are always lurking just around the corner. In addition to Sandoval, Anderson has obviously listened to his share of Brutal Truth, utilizing spastic Richard Hoak snare and tom fills, and come to think of it Egon does sound a bit like Kevin Sharp at times, just a bit more death. And are those socially conscious statements on songs such as “Palestine Guts”, “Spell or Xenophobism” and “Chaotic State of Addiction”? Who said zombies and conscience don't go together?

Expurgo have mastered the grind art of building anticipation through the intro, as proven on tracks such as “Sofrer em Paz”,  and are well studied and versed in the classics of grindcore and goregrind, with bands such as General Surgery and Dead Infection also playing a role in their sound. The band utilizes a hard hitting approach, leaving out the noise aspect of grind—impact uber alles. The riffs follow the blood flow; the path of least resistance, planting maggots in the coagulated slop and appealing to baser, primal instincts. Leandro's bass tone skulks between porno grind and death metal tones, staying spot on with the rhythm of the precise blast. But they don't over-think it. They're just natural born sociopaths

Variation comes on “Sense Power, Be Dead”, which slows things down quite a few paces—a mid-set breather. But that isn't to last, as the blast is bound to return. A vocal transformer makes an appearance on “Purging the Phlegm”, a track the brings Regurgitate to mind. And of course every grind act has to have their sub-20-second songs, which Expurgo bowls through with a trio of “Nao Part 1”, “Regurfecontovoremintocegues”, and “Nao Part 2” as the album draws near to its close. Ending the blood soaked festivities is “Grey Waste II”, a sludgy dirge of an outro ripe with feedback and whammy bar play.

At this point in their career, Expurgo know well what they're doing, and have taken the zombies and gore, bloody gore themes and put some brains behind the horror guise when they have something to espouse besides blood and guts. Fans of classic grind won't soon grow tired of spinning Burial Ground, with its grind tunes that possess a rare sense of staying power.