The Damnnation – Eyes of Despair
The Damnnation – Eyes of Despair
Shinigami Records
Release Date: 19/09/2025
Review by Victor Augusto
9/10
From all the small talk I’ve been doing about how I love to follow a band’s career since the beginning, and how good it is to see them evolving along the years, maybe there is one thing I don’t often mention. And it is that the worst problem for Brazilian bands is not the quality (that they have a lot), the problem is how little effort they put into their own career. Luckily, Brazilian female bands are giving a masterclass lesson in reaching further horizons, and The Damnnation is one great example that keeping touring, releasing albums, and being professional are the keys to success.
Back in, not so long ago, the lockdown era, in 2020, I wrote about the band’s first EP release, here. Since the beginning, I felt good and heavy cadenced songs. Following that, their first full-length album came out in 2022. And now, I am shocked by this new one. Since the first track, you will have a smooth, heavy punch in your face. Paradoxal, right? I say smooth because it is like a Death Metal band in terms of heaviness, but playing Heavy Metal. Nothing here is exacerbated. Everything comes in good measure and balance.
What conquered my love for this album is something that I heard in the classic Sepultura albums – an energetic power among the riffs and all the changes they offer. You don’t need to be fast or use all the distortion in the world to do it brilliantly, but I believe the band is playing with so much anger here as a consequence of what they are talking about in the lyrics. But they also put hope in good melodies, showing that every darkness can make us stronger.
Examples of the lyrics come in ‘Hatred Genocide’ where the word “domination” can be associated to the band’s name, which is a mix of “Damn” and “Nation” as a reflex of the world we live in. Despite all the darkness we hear about everything happening worldwide, here there is a way of sending a positive message, like in ‘Matter Of Time’ when Renata sings “Learn from your mistakes. Become better than you are”. Also in ‘Battlefield’, which is basically about fighting for equal rights.
“If I don’t scream, who will listen to me?”. I believe this verse could be a picture of the soul of “Eyes of Despair”, like the band getting all their anger from their personal battles off their chest. I also believe it goes further, because in this short period of 5 years, The Damnnation have worked a lot to become a highlighted band in Brazil, with many tours in South America and also a great one in the USA, despite struggling with all the issues that heavy bands from this part of the world are used to suffering.
Musically, the album is very aggressive without sounding exacerbated. ‘Stoned’, for example, has the Sepultura spirit from the song ‘Spit, in the initial riffs, but they don’t go as extreme as Sepultura, keeping everything easy to digest. Another example is ‘The Fall’ that carries inspired riffs from the ‘Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath’ intro, as well. By the way, this song is the one with my favourite guitar solo. Maybe, they unconsciously paid a tribute to Sabbath, even before knowing the band was about to do their last show.
I believe the beautiful cover art, with a girl keeping herself strong while many people lost their lives around her, also having ‘bad news’ on the horizon, can represent exactly what a female underground band faces in their career, which is the hard work of an underground band to survive. As a result, “Eyes of Despair” shows a band that has been working hard during the last 5 or 6 years and who have evolved so much in a short space of time.
‘Burning Rain’ Official Video
TRACKLISTING:
01. Burning Rain
02. Hatred Genocide
03. Matter Of Time
04. Battlefield (feat. Opus Mortis)
05. Stoned
06. Solitude
07. Evilness (feat. Daniela Serafim)
08. Another Dimension (feat. Mayara Puertas)
09. The Fall
10. Tempus Fugit
11. Already Dead Inside (feat. Mayara Puertas)
LINE-UP:
Renata Petrelli – Vocals And Guitars
Camila Almeida – Drums
Fernanda Lessa – Bass
LINKS:
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