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Facada and Diagnose…

Facada - Indigesto"Indigesto" is the raging debut full-length from Brazilian grind trio Facada on Independência Records (who doesn't seem to have a website that I can find), and I have to open by saying that this thing looks awesome. The outer packaging is covered in brightly colored photography with a lot of dirty looking textures, and inside it's all high contrast imagery printed in brown ink alongside the lyrics—with everything printed on matte cream-colored stock for added effect. Fuckin' beautiful! Musically, the band seems to have come a long way from their demo (see below), still relying heavily on blazing speeds and a mix of tremolo picking runs and ripping power chords, but creating more distinction between the high/low vocal attack and definitely injecting more tempo changes throughout this material, which gives the listener a little more to grab onto. They never slow things down too much, and still keep things short but sweet (only two songs pass the two-minute mark and they crank out 20 tracks in about a half-hour), but there's a little more diversity happening here as well—with a couple of sludgy breaks that are actually pretty "slow", a little bit of noisy discordance, and even some very rare fits of slightly jazzy drumming (I'd love to hear a touch more of that!). These variances are definitely spread distantly throughout the album, though, so the key factor is still fast, explosive, energetic grindcore rooted in the classic niche of the genre. The recording's still got a nice sense of ruggedness to it, but there's a hint more clarity this time out in terms of being able to make out the basslines and such, which is great. The percussion also feels a little warmer and more natural as well, and I'm always a proponent of that kind of move. The vast majority of the lyrics are in Portuguese, but I'm assuming based on the imagery and a few lines of what English lyrics do appear that there's a socio-political sort of message happening throughout the bulk of the tracks. Whatever the case, this band totally tears it up, and is absolutely one to watch out for...

Facada "Fumo"
Facada "9mm de Redenção"
Facada "Falta Excesso"

I'm thinking it might be a little bit of a chore to get your hands on this one outside of Brazil, but contact the band on MySpace to see what's up in terms of ordering information. Definitely show your support if you like that you hear!






Facada - s/tThis demo dates all the way back to 2004 and was the debut release from Facada, where they blasted through 10 tracks (all of which are exclusive to this demo, I believe) of their ruthless grind in 11-and-a-half minutes on the dot. No song hits two minutes and for the most part they just rip through loads of death metal-infused tremolo picking or blistering power chord rhythms with linearly screamed vocals. On rare occasion there's an ever so slightly "slower" break that gets a bit chunkier and throws in some palm-muting while touching on a hint of hardcore-esque "groove" (for lack of a better word), which I love, but even though there's not a ton of diversity throughout the demo, at less than 12 minutes it's not like you feel like you're enduring a marathon, you know? And the recording's pretty damn strong for a demo as well: Thick, relatively balanced, etc. No complaints from me. The CD-R is housed inside a simple yet highly effective full-color slipcase with a small tab on the bottom that tucks inside to hold the disc in place. No lyrics are included, which is a shame, but the artwork looks fuckin' great, so... for a CD-R demo they really did a nice job packaging it up. Well done, overall.

Facada "Culpa"
Facada "Apocalipse Agora"

Especially seeing as it's three years old now, I'd again recommend contacting the band via MySpace to see about getting your hands on this one.






Diagnose - Neurose XXIAlso from Brazil and having shared a guitarist with Facada was Diagnose, who called it quits late last year—just shy of their 10-year anniversary and shortly after releasing their first full-length, "Neurose XXI", on Nocaute Discos. Another trio, their sound is actually not very far from Facada's at all, as here they blast through 22 tracks of ripping grind in about 27 minutes. The key differences are that here the vocals stick with more of a snarled upper-midrange yell (only occasionally reverting to a lower sort of "grunt"), and musically—though quite fast—they tend to stray away from tremolo picking in favor of thicker power chord rhythms that can carry a crusty sort of hardcore/punk undercurrent at times. But despite a relatively one-sided approach, they—again like Facada—keep the energy level high and leave little room for losing steam in the grand scheme of things. A hint more diversity wouldn't hurt, but there are some pretty crushing breakdowns in a few instances that definitely jump out at you. Solid recording, too. Everything's nice and thick without venturing into muddy territory, the mix is crisp enough to grant space to all of the elements, and even though you can't really make out very much of the bass presence, it's definitely back there in the distance plugging away and filling things out. The cover art has a gore grind sort of look to it, but I don't think that's what's happening here. All of the lyrics are in Portuguese, so I'm not entirely sure, but I'd expect more of the socio-political angle once more based on the types of influences these guys were working with. Good stuff. It's a damn shame they broke up right after the album was released, but at least the material was documented!

Diagnose "Neurose XXI"
Diagnose "Vende-Se"
Diagnose "In Extremis"

Once more: Ordering information? I'm not entirely sure, so... if you're into it, please do get in touch with either the band or the label to see what's up. Go!

Comments

  1. facada must love naplam death. thats not a bad thing though…..

    5.11.2007 | By L.Ron

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