Dishonour – Erasing the Rats EP
Dishonour – Erasing the Rats EP
Theogonia Records
Release Date: 26/05/23
Running Time: 15:48
Review by Paul Hutchings
8/10
I do like a bit of blackened death metal at times. Not when it’s a warm sunny evening and the birds are tweeting gently in the back garden as I relax on the patio, you understand. More when I’m in need of something more gargantuan, thunderous, punishing, and urgent. As the sun streams in through the window, it may not be the ideal time to review this solid release from Portuguese beasts Dishonour but as soon as ‘Erasing the Rats’ roared out of the speakers, I’m sold and diving in for a listen.
This is an outfit who’ve only been in existence for 12 months. Their intention is clear. Their music is levelling, pulverising, dark, sinister. The band’s bio tells me that they were formed in São Romão do Coronado, by vocalist Marco ‘The Beast’ Ferreira, a misanthropic Luciferian writer and multi-instrumentalist Bruno Silva. Together, the duo recorded “Erasing the Rats” before recruiting the rest of the band to complete the line-up.
What we get on “Erasing the Rats” is four-tracks of compelling, bruising blackened death metal. It’s all focused in one direction, with blast beats, gruff vocals, and walls of riffs. The opening song is the title track, and it’s a raging maelstrom of chaos. Ferreria’s vocals suit the wall of noise that he rages over, the tempo changes work well, with full paced passages balanced by slower, heavier, grinding sections. It’s a style that isn’t ground-breaking, but Dishonour do it well.
‘Mayhem’s Heritage’ may or may not be about the seminal black metal outfit. I’m not brilliant with distinguishing lyrics at such velocity, so I’ll leave it to you to work it out. Regardless, the intensity and relentlessness of the song maintains the atmosphere that the band have crafted. It’s another blistering aural assault, and by now I’m warming to the tightness of the musicianship, as well as the brutal delivery.
It’s unrelenting, volley after volley of pummelling riffs that will cave skulls and break bones. ‘Storming the Nazarene’ is simply intense, huge riffs that envelope and smother. Suffocating stuff at times, but uncompromising, bombastic, and downright aggressive. ‘The Choir of Sodomised Angels’ is one of the titles of 2023. Unsurprisingly the tempo is as ballistic as previous tracks, and it’s a bone splitter that brings this violent, feral, and simply brilliant EP to a close. Whether Dishonour can push on after this is debatable, but if you want your head smacked in for a quarter of an hour, there are few finer bands to deliver that slap across the cranium.
‘Erasing The Rats’ Official Audio
TRACKLISTING:
01. Erasing the Rats
02. Mayhem’s Heritage
03. Storming the Nazarene
04. The Choir of Sodomized Angels
LINE-UP:
Marco ‘The Beast’ Ferreira – Vocals
Bruno Silva – Guitars
Magnus Einar – bass
Ruben Oliveira – Guitars
Nuno Mouräo – Session Guitars
Luis Moreira – Session Drums
LINKS:
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