Review by Rexorcist for Ratos de Porão - Brasil (1989)

Crossover thrash bands seem to curse themselves with unoriginality and may make up for this with heaviness.  Thankfully, a band like Ratos de Porao at least knows how to keep making good, if not great, melodies while successfully remaining heavy as hell.  Ratos de Porao's Brasil is considered to be one of the best examples of crossover thrash, although it seems obvious to me that a large factor in this is its incredible, and I do mean INCREDIBLE, heaviness.  If you ask me, it's just a couple feet away from the heaviness displayed in Kreator's Pleasure to Kill and Slayer's Reign in Blood.  Ratos de Porao take the attitude and aggression associated with crossover thrash's drunken hooligan behavior, and maximize it, allowing for all 18 crossover thrash songs to rock out louder than they deserve to.  It's full of powerful bursts of enough energy to power a city.  Unfortunately, I still take everything else into account.  This album does practically everything you can expect within the confines of a singular genre album, but when you have 18 songs, however short, it gets samey by the end.  There's crativity here, but not enough to meet the standards of the thrash giants, so while it's a fantastic example of attitude and heaviness, it's just a little too long for my liking.