Band:	Facínora
Album:	Hell Is Here
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	September 15, 2010
A review by:	Thryce

01. Hell Is Here
02. Source Of Madness
03. R.I.P (Religions Is A Plague)
04. Intro
05. Empty Illusions
06. Living In Reality
07. War Between Selfish
08. Despair
09. Terror
10. The Evil

Thrash metal
Unsigned/Self-released
Total Running Time: 43:59


Regular visitors of our review department may remember the name Facínora... No? Fine, let me briefly recap what you missed:

The band is called Facínora. That's Portuguese for "we rock your socks off".

Facínora hail from Brazil. That's the country where Thrash Metal is an all-important export sector driving the Brazilian economy (approximately 6% of gross domestic product, according to the latest statistics).

The band previously released one demo, Born In Fear, back in 2008 (an in-depth review by some schmuck writer can be read here). The short version of that review: the band is catchier than herpes, tighter than a virgin's daughter and dirtier than your browsing history.

All four songs on that demo are also on the new album Hell Is Here. Since that schmuck writer said some pretty awesome things about that demo, the new album is supposedly 40% awesome already.

This is where we left last time... which was about two years ago. In the meantime the band didn't change gear at all and still sounds exactly the same: up-tempo and old school as fuck. Nothing wrong with that, albeit that in those two years the resurgence of retro-thrash bloomed. Nowadays playing old school thrash metal is no longer an automatic win in most people's books - absurd as it may be.

There is no jury in the world that will convict the band for being too original, or too sophisticated, or too straight-forward. So if you can get past the whole "rehashing old ideas" thing, there's actually a more than enjoyable release waiting for you - especially if you're more of a newcomer to the genre.

Hell Is Here is a straight-up thrash release, alright. A return to the core strengths of the genre... and thus perhaps a tad too safe for purists. But as long as it's well-executed, there shouldn't be any problem with reviving the old school spirit.

And that's about all that needs to be said, really. If you're interested in good retro-thrash, I'm sure you're checking this band out by now. If not, go play in traffic.

Written by Thryce | 14.11.2010