Review by Saxy S for Papangu - Holoceno (2021)

Brazilian based Papangu's debut LP is quite the daunting task for a band just trying to get their feet wet. It's a sludge metal album that is littered with post-metal and psychedelic songwriting techniques and tells quite the tale conceptually. Like with Gojira, these themes are heavily focused on environmentalism, but they are more reminiscent of the Buddhist tale of Kisa Gotami; a character who tried to defy fate, and failed spectacularly in their attempts to stop it. However, Gotami eventually understood that fate was inevitable and succumbed to its grasp. Papangu meanwhile try to defy fate, fail, and then attempt to undo their wrongdoing, leading to further chaos. It makes for a growing listen that starts formulaic. But as the tracks get longer, the forms become less structured and spiral out of control.

Instrumentally, the music is psychedelic so themes are sparse and the fuzzy guitar take you along a journey that is as captivating as the story itself. Vocals alternate between cultist chants and quasi-black metal screeches, although the screeching vocals are held back in the mix considerably. Saxophone during the last two tracks was a welcome surprise, but by this point in the record, the chaos theory have grown exponentially, so the sax does not have a real distinctive theme to connect these longer songs together.

I kept thinking back to Alphaville by Imperial Triumphant from last year while listening to this, but I.T. are a death metal band, and the frantic nature of that subgenre of metal felt a lot more appropriate for this kind of nihilistic, end of the world concept. Whereas with a lot of psychedelic music recently from XIXA and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, it feels more like hippie singing around a campfire, while not really doing anything about our crumbling world. This hits with more authority than those other two names mentioned, but it still holds less weight than other metal albums, and more recently, Imperial Triumphant.