Abominable Anno Domini

Chakal already made a mark with material by '86 in Brazil with their particular brand of extreme metal. Likewise to Sepultura and Holocausto, they're from the state of Minas Gerais and also share some of the same fundamentals, however, their overall sound on their debut is a little bit different. Listening to "Abominable Anno Domini," you wouldn't mistake them for a replica of an Attomica, a Vulcano, a Dorsal Atlantica, a Mutilator, a Sarcofago, a Panic or a Korzus either, who each had their own set of releases by '87 when this came out.

The sound levels can shift when switching to different tracks, so you could skip ahead and the mixing might noticeably differ. The guitars have a slight layer of '80's Brazilian fuzz on them, which makes them not as pronounced as they could have been in areas; such as when palm muting up a ruckus and then rapidly transitioning between notes, which can give the false impression that their fingers aren't completely saddled to the fret board. The drums—though likewise interchangeable with their collective volume to the rest—for the most part sound level and without a muffled bone in its wood and metal body, even with some slight reverb giving off a "pop" on the somewhat higher tuned snare. The vocals are quite possibly the loudest and usually stay that way, and even though he's distorting his voice, his delivery is pronounced and without fade-ins/outs.

Now, here's where some of the separation to their contemporaries comes in: Chakal aren't completely outrageous, out-of-control or untamed, more like a band that has some crudeness but balances that out, and they play something like death-thrash yet with a closer leaning to thrash. Their structure and tempo range is less primitive, direct and savage than what Sarcofago was blasting out or Holocausto was screaming forth. They're not the epitome of nasty, but, then again, aren't without emotion either. The vocalist gives a pretty characteristic delivery. Korg has a roughened, on-the-verge-of-growl voice, but with a lot of wail in there, such as saying a word, extending it and then almost rounded it out. Depending on the particular moment, his tone can change from higher to lower. When higher, it's like he's using more of a gurgling head voice, and when lower, he gives off a slight snarl and something like a bellow. On the track "The Dead Walk" he does a cool technique of saying the line: "There's no reason for them to live," then gives this long audible gasping breath before uttering, "But they live again," just in time for a solo to peak the moment. Along with the vocals, most of the solos are focused and unique, such as having many different pulls and tugs of the strings and typically with an abundance of varied switchovers within a short time frame. It almost sounds like there is delay to give a few notes a little bit extra—like a sound that leaps out—when holding a string and bending it.

The momentum can switch to faster oriented thrash beats to quite a bit of mid-paced areas pumping away as well. The middling portions can generate double bass and also use something of more rapidly played hi-hat while having a spaced hit on the snare, or some sped up snare hits without picking up the pace like a race horse. The drummer's skill level is fairly basic and sometimes he lumbers on, though this is an improvement from prior material and in certain areas he manages to use the tom drums, not just as brief rolls when going faster, but also in a few areas during the calmer moments to dodge the typical course. When the guitars aren't sweeping back and forth notes with solos, the rhythms can for the most part be played more simplistically, though with an occasional moment of turning somewhat complex or even layered with dual playing. One of the main guitar lines on "Terminal Brain" is melodically played with some single, higher strings at the start and a tremolo technique wrapping up the fill. Generally the guitars have tendency to use an abundance of palm mutes, and they'll also occasionally pull out some mean sounding double picking, backed by the drums pounding away in an attempt to match their ferocity.

"Abominable Anno Domini" is an album that took some sidelined direction when released in Brazil. While Chakal doesn't take that and push it above and beyond or lead its listeners down a new path to a whole other civilization, it's just slightly different in its own right. The band wrote its share of involving moments and their composition delivers some of the goods—some sections make that head bang, some of the leads peak a moment and the vocals take a firm grasp of being frontman. However, there are other areas that just don't seem that exciting. I mean, Korg is constantly giving sway with this particular kind of varying emotional delivery with his voice, but it's still not enough to overcome the rest of the music. I think they would have benefited by snip, snipping a little time off and possibly condensing themselves, because it can linger in certain areas, and I would imagine more transitions would have steered a listener away from any potential lulls. Not the number of tracks, that's fine, since there is slight variety per song, but the actual time frame within the songs, like they occasionally have tendency to overextend themselves. Who knows, a few of the more heinous extreme metal bands in Brazil might have had the same issue if it weren't for them seeing how fast they can go. Chakal's song writing, on the other hand, could have taken advantage of more peaking climax and sense of escalation, and then from there move on to the next best thing.

First of all, I’d like to say that this debut by one of the most forgotten Brazilian realities is not a masterpiece. It is another goodish but not astonishing effort that, anyway, didn’t deserved to be overlooked by many. Chakal belong to the long list of bands that always worked honestly and with passion, trying to put out something that could be remembered in a very important period for extreme metal.

Their style is the classic violent, raw thrash metal that was taking the world during those years. Sometimes the thrash component flows also in some more death metal oriented moments but they are not so present and the band somehow manages to carry on mostly the thrash metal style. The tempo in these tracks is always quite fast with several, remarkable tempo changes. Here we can find the classic, low tuned and metallic guitars sound that characterized almost every single released in Brazil at the time and the low budget production, but all the instruments are equally audible and enjoyable in their volumes.

The vocals are quite rough in their particular tonality and somehow they lead to a raw form of death/thrash. The fast up tempo parts in “The Planet is Dead” and the essential guitars work is typical of the hardcore/thrash metal genre but when it comes to more direct and heavy riffage, the band is more compact and more incisive. It’s good to notice how the band considers the mid paced moments essential to give more variety to the sound. These parts are always well balanced with the up tempo and also the songs length is remarkable, showing signs of maturity.

The echoing production doesn’t help during the solos parts that are a bit “far” in volumes with the echoing distortion. Also the drums are a bit too raw in the sounds but they fit perfectly for this sound. The drummer is not exceptional at all, being quite monotonous in his style without too many passages and changes. The good ones can be found in “Terminal Brain”, anyway. “Children of the Cemetery” along with the dark “Jason Lives” can be considered the highlights here because they contain not memorable moments, but appealing parts.

The main problem of albums like this one in Brazil back in the 80s is the lack of catchy parts. Let me explain: the tracks are well structured, you can hear the sincerity and the genuine side in the music but the structures sometimes result a bit boring for their length and the quite heavy absence of attractive sections. They fall into a level of semi-mediocrity and that’s a thing that makes me mad because a sincere band like this one surely deserves more but let’s face reality. It’s not a masterpiece and it doesn’t manage to capture my attention during all the length.