Sarcófago

I get endless amounts of enjoyment out of the fact that the metal world does things like this: reissues CDs like Decade of Decay, which originally came out in 1995 and is a 20-song collection of demos and rarities from a way underground Brazilian cult metal band. I'm actually very happy that people out there care enough to reissue this stuff, as Sarcofago have always been one breath away from being completely forgotten by even serious extreme metal scholars. Here, tunes like "Midnight Queen" show the band could have been the next Venom or maybe even Metallica (work with me here) had they known how to streamline and focus (they didn't ― that song is over six minutes). "Nightmare" is another great Venom-esque tune, although it shows the band's lack of focus ― the abrupt switch to blasting black thrash is harsh on all but the most destroyed ears. And those high-pitched vocals (best example: "The Black Vomit")? Priceless. It's harsh all around, but awesome, a good mix of fun trad/thrash and raging blackened thrash and death metal. Twenty songs though? From my review notes: "Goes on for days. I want to kill myself."