Label: Everlasting Spew Records
Date: May 9th, 2025
You may or may not agree with that, I actually don’t give a damn, but in my opinion Brazilian scene is greatly underestimated and little known. Yeah, I know this is quite a controversial thesis for some people. And I already can hear voices like “What the fuck are you talking about? And Sepultura, Sarcofago, Krisiun, Cavalera Conspiracy or Soulfly?”. Sure, these bands are very well-known to everyone, but it’s only a top of iceberg. I’ll not even mention the whole taboo of ensembles who made a great contribution to the scene. But acts founded after 2000 are, at least I have such feeling, totally anonymous for a lot of “average” metalheads. And it unfortunately doesn’t matter that they create something enormous. One of these bands is Escarnium, coming from the city located on the coast in central Brazil. This city is Salvador where more than two and half million inhabitants live, what makes it 5th the most populous city in the country. Nota bene, two legendary bands I mentioned, of course not directly, before comes from there.
Anyway, Escarnium was founded in 2008, and “Inexorable Entropy” is their fourth album. We had to wait for it long almost three years, but it definitely was worth it! Well, guys never ever, and I heard, and for this review I refreshed them, their all items – unfortunately only online, released even average shit. Of course, I’m not going in some comparisons here! The main reason is that music isn’t some fucking one-hundred-meter run, every release has its own history and so on. That’s why awarding any grades (points or percentages) to individual releases has always made me laugh. In my opinion, it misses the point and even smells a misunderstanding what music actually is, takes away its name as art and reduces it to absurdity. And I remain silent about the fact that my assessment may be completely different from yours. So, what does it matter if I give one album 93% and another 29%? The answer is: any! It means only that I like some full-length much more than another. That’s it.
OK, but let’s leave these philosophical arguments aside and go back to the merits of the matter. Escarnium is one of these ensembles whose evolution takes place within a strictly defined genre of music. There are of course some differences between Escarnium’s several releases, but at the same time there’s no room for some far-reaching experiments here – what’s quite characteristic for Latin American scene. It’s, as always in the case of this ensemble, quite short (nine tracks take thirty-one minutes and sixteen seconds), intensive and to the point! Guys don’t fuck around at all, what means one huge eruption of brutality and music extremism. There are some slower, even in some sense atmospheric, parts or not too developed guitar tricks. Don’t take me wrong, you can hear in them that both Victor and Alex know very well what instrument they play is created for. The same is of course about drummer Nestor and bassist Gabriel. But everything, including deep Victor’s growling, serves one goal – spreading misanthropy, decadence and nihilism in as brutal form as possible. And our Brazilian metal brothers do it, let’s don’t be afraid to use this word, brilliantly. The listener has not a moment of respite, because the slower parts I mentioned are by no means peaceful and what’s more, they’re disturbing. Besides they take place quite rarely.
Do I need to say directly what kind of our beloved music Escarnium plays? I seriously doubt I must do it! Writing about genre-specific determinants like riffs I also consider unnecessary. The only important thing I need to tell you are two, let’s call them, technical facts. This is, next to its creators I listed before, Italian Everlasting Spew Records is responsible for the plague called “Inexorable Entropy”. And this terrible event took place May 9th, in addition, to increase its firing power, using CDs, cassettes and digital album. So, if you’re as sick individuals as I’m, you know what to do!
Contact: escarniumdm@gmail.com
