Reviews list for Chakal - Abominable anno domini (1987)

Brazilian thrashers Chakal hail from a region with a reasonably strong pedigree in raw, underground thrash metal with Belo Horizonte being the home of bands like Sepultura, Overdose, Sarcofago, Mutilator, Holocausto & Exterminator in the mid 80's. The band first formed in 1985 with their earliest recordings of any note appearing on the "Warfare Noise" compilation in 1986 alongside Mutilator, Holocausto & Sarcofago. Another year would pass before Chakal's debut album "Abominable anno domini" would be recorded & released; a record that I picked up on through one of my two South American tape trading colleagues based in Chile & Peru in the early 90's. The album didn't do a lot for me at the time from memory & I had very little recollection of what to expect when going into my first revisit in close to thirty years.

The formula that Chakal are pushing here will be a familiar one if you have any sort of experience with some of the other Brazilian bands I've mentioned above. The production is suitably raw with the mix changing noticeably between tracks. In fact, i found myself adjusting the volume knob a bit between tracks too which indicates that the album wasn't well mastered (if it was mastered at all). Unfortunately the rhythm guitars are situated a long way back in the mix which seems to be a very common thing with low budget mid-80's metal releases for some reason but the vocals & solos compensate by being much too loud & subsequently not really allowing the overall sound to gel all that well. The bass guitar is also much louder than the guitars on some tracks which isn't ideal.

The musicianship on display here is sub-standard at best with the drummer Wiz often struggling to stay in time. He's clearly been influenced by Kreator's Ventor on the evidence here as he goes for some very similar beats. There are times when the riffs the rhythm guitarists are playing don't really seem to fit with the beats either & they seem to be trying very hard to make something to work that's just never going to. There's a good amount of intensity & aggression about this riffage though without ever challenging the likes of Sarcofago in the extremity stakes & it goes at least part of the way to overcoming some fairly generic thrash riffs at times with Possessed, early Sepultura & particularly early Kreator being the most obvious points of reference. The best parts of "Abominable anno domini" though are when Chakal push out further into legitimate death metal territory with "Warriors Of Disgrace" & "The Dead Walk" being not only the clear highlights of the album but also some of the best extreme metal to come out of South America to the time. I absolutely love the way that the vocals are used to accentuate the changes in riff & rhythm. Unfortunately the guitar solos are absolutely appalling with Mark & Pepeu having no understanding of keys or any other sort of musical theory for that matter. It's a real shame when some of the better material here is tainted by such inept attempts at leadwork & Chakal would have been better off leaving the solos to better qualified bands.

But the real talking point here is front man Vladimir Korg whose vocals are particularly aggressive for a mainly thrash focused band. In fact I'd suggest that his delivery has a lot more in common with genuine death metal than it does with thrash. He kinda combines a raspy Coroner/Sadus approach with a more evil one that's very much in line with the material that Possessed & Death were putting out at the time. I actually really enjoy Vladimir's delivery & I think he's clearly the best thing about the album. He sounds even more effective on those death metal-driven highlight tracks too.

Unfortunately though, it's the inconsistent song-writing & inept instrumental performances that let Chakal down here despite a lot of enthusiasm. The highlight tracks may well be right up my alley but they're still marginally tainted by some horrible attempts at guitar solos in the middle of each song & the weaker tracks (see "Children Sacrifice") are really pretty terrible. There's simply not enough quality tracks to balance out the rubbish so despite Chakal not being the worst South American thrash band going round they don't manage to achieve an album that commands long-term appeal.

For fans of: Possessed & early Kreator/Sepultura.