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Dorsal Atlântica > Antes do Fim > Reviews
Dorsal Atlântica - Antes do Fim

Eccentric Thrash With a Hint of Cross-Genres - 66%

Byrgan, September 12th, 2008

Antes do Fim comes across as a form of mixed genre thrash from Brazil, with a stated influence of various punk/hardcore and US/European heavy-metal and speed-metal bands. They play a primitive form, from the basic drums to the bombastic bass and heavy speech Portuguese. Although, the guitars keep a more intricate form, only by comparison. The recordings for Antes do Fim apparently back then had limited budgets, and only so many metal bands, albeit extreme-metal bands by '86, were emerging from Brazil. So you can imagine the style is a little wobbly and experimental. I can possibly picture Dorsal Atlantica on some Brazilian sponsor program to get relief funds to record their album. Using a phrase to paint an exaggerated early black-and-white picture like: Help this poor, struggling band make a Brazilian R$ (real) and produce this recording. Showing a degrading scene with the drummer holding two twigs and an overturned mop bucket, while the singer cups his hands over his mouth while alternating between vocal-guitar imitations and normal vocals, and while another member uses a tarnished 3 string bass guitar, with the bass guitar saying -a--ha instead of Yamaha.

This release is a bit different from the split they did a year prior, as well as how they would sound two years later on the second full length. On the Ultimatum split, there was a more clear and defined heavy-metal and speed-metal side, with a punk rock undertone on some songs as well. Along with plenty of falsettos and shouted singing attempts, while lending simplistic rhythms and traditional solos. Although, within a more, overall, tamer placing. On Antes do Fim the vocals would become more villainous and deep. As well as the overall music would peak its intensity with faster drums and faster guitars. Here, they definitely sound like a death-thrash band musically. However, would be the kid who would play along. But not totally conform to the game like the others. Lyrically and ideology speaking they would steer from gore and satanic themes for their own purposes. As is more in evidence on their next album.

Looking at the music, it does stand out at points (if only intermittently peeks) and has its own metal-shining (with some tarnish). The riffs keep the songs moving and changing, although within only a few different variations. He can primarily sway the song with a strummed fast style, while ending it in a series of quick, single notes. He tends to use this particular riffing style quite often. The bass guitar is actually louder in the recording than the actual guitars. That might be one aspect of their hardcore and punk influences heavily bleeding through. It is played clean and very pronounced. Although, due to the recording, it peaks volumes and makes the speakers buzz at points on their end. It reminds me of some low budget 70's or before movie, where if a live band is playing too loud it can give it that unmixed, distorted buzz that tells you the speakers are too small to handle it. Well, that might be a good thing for a metal band, to have a loud sound that might potentially blow your speakers; or was too heavy for their own.

If you can picture a primitive tribesman with no shirt and not as much as a fur crotch-and-crack-blocker, holding two big bones in each hand and pounding animal skinned drums, then you can somewhat envision the drummer. He has unashamed and very basic, barbaric chops. He doesn't peak past a medium or faster, pounding thrash beat. Clunking the sticks up and down, like him and the snare have some unfinished business. The cymbals are also much lower than his bassy sounding snare, and his extra bassy bass drum; with the hi-hat somewhere in between. Which makes them sound much more prominent, without an occasional higher noise for resolve. The vocalist wouldn't even try to pass his English language exams anytime soon back then. It wasn't too uncommon that some well known Brazilian bands around the time or later would use their mother tongue. On here, he has a very thick Portuguese vocalization. Even when he distorts his voice, you know that Portuguese emits from his lips. However, it gives it a certain distinction listening to it. He primarily uses a deep, roughened, quick, mild gruff most of the time. However, he might change it up with a higher toned sounding yell or a rare falsetto. Also, there is a thick layer of echo or delay on his voice. It makes it stretch out when he might yell or go higher toned.

I think this album has its own distinct personality. A release that you would have to be there ultimately experiencing it or have it grow on you to appreciate it completely. Realistically, it does lack in some areas of production and comes off as patchy. And some of the instrumentation comes off as very basic, to a point of some moments having been not so time-enduring. Although, Antes do Fim sounds different, even within its own contexts is only just a casual listen for me due to its bare bones simplicity. Another words, it would be a little less charming even if it was released somewhere in the 90s or even now. I've listened to this a few years ago and thought the same thing upon relistening to it again now. Maybe you'll be spoiled too by wanting or expecting it to be original and multi-layered coming from an earlier and extreme year of 1986. Another evolving year for Brazilian metal. A year when extreme-metal was becoming more dominate to a previous year when traditional speed and heavy was more prevalent release wise.

Overall, that doesn't entirely rob you from mid-80's roughened thrash, that is displayed on Dorsal's first, with a tad bit of an earlier influenced hardcore and punk salute. And a musical sound that could be considered death-thrash in execution. Also, I couldn't have really seen this release as being sold in other continents without "Brazilian-" or "South American-" metal being attached. It probably can't be described on its own without those connotations. So if you're looking for a well rounded thrash album, you might want to look elsewhere. But if you don't mind some eccentricity in your listening menu, then I still recommend this to you. With a time-stamped feature of '86 and enclosed with an authentic smell of primitive South American jungles.

Nice piece of history from Brasil - 70%

morbert, August 18th, 2008

It wasn’t until a few years back that I started looking for more (forgotten) underground thrash from South America. I grew up with the more well known names from Germany, the U.K. and U.S. and for years I only knew Brazilian acts like Ratos De Porao, Sarcofago and Sepultura (and more recently, Violator). When I got my hands on old albums from Holocausto, Atomica, Vulcano and Dorsal Atlantica a whole new eighties South American scene opened up to me.

And Dorsal Atlantica were one of the more enjoyable acts. Even though in my opinion the band got compositionally worse with each album the productions got better. The 1986 version of “Antes do Fim” still stands firm if you’re in for another slab of ancient death-thrash a la Morbid Visions. After that album Dorsal Atlântica tried several things to cope with the changing interest of the average metal audience by playing death metal and even some groovy stuff during the nineties. So over the years we can’t speak of a consistent nor die-hard thrashing band.

A lot of the Brazilian thrash metal albums during the second half of the eighties sound as if they were all recorded in the same studio and all share the same flaws. Thin sloppy guitars, dinky toy drums and aggressie vocals with too much reverb. As said, I used to call it the ‘Morbid-Visions-sound’. Now I just call it the Brasil 85-87 Sound (BEES).

BEES does have it’s charm. It gives all those records that same atmosphere. But obviously it doesn’t fit all the bands and it sounds better with Sepultura than Dorsal Atlântica. Just imagine if this album would have had the production of Kreaqtor’s ‘Terrible Certainty’ or even Dark Angels’ Leave Scars. Compositionally and technically Dorsal Atlântica were slightly better than most other Brazilian thrash metal acts in 1986 so this neanderthal sound doesn’t always do justice to the songs.

Now I could go on about how underground and honest this records was and how it is much better than all those bands that made it big and therefor are always accused of being more ‘commercial’ but honestly there is a reason (other than coming from Brasil) why other thrash metal bands from ’86 became more succesful. Simply because those other bands wrote (slightly) better and catchier songs. So if you’re really into thrash (and not only the A-level bands), “Antes do Fim” is a nice B-record with much to enjoy on it. It sure as hell beats the crap out of contemporary releases from Holocausto, Metalmorphose and Vulcano!

If I were to make a comparisson it would be that “Antes do Fim” is balancing between Sepultura’s ‘Morbid Visions’ and the Necrodeath album ‘Into the Macabre’. And please, even if the production here isn’t ‘all that’, do get the original 1986 recordings and not the badly performed re-recorded 2005 version (“Antes do Fim, Depois do Fim”)

I wish more albums were like this nowadays... - 84%

CHRISTI_NS_ANITY8, July 8th, 2008

First of all, try to image how a band like Dorsal Atlantica could have been important for the growing extreme Brazilian scene. The mid 80s were absolutely great and the explosion of metal in Europe and in the United States of America contaminated other countries. In Brazil we had a lot of extreme groups and they were more death/thrash oriented; while going on, by the beginning of the 90s, the bands started to play black metal.

They were heavily influenced by everything that was coming from abroad in this genre, as we said, so let’s think to the thrash metal explosion and the very first examples of primordial death metal. Take the drums up tempo ala Hellhamer plus add pure old school blackened tremolo pickings by the guitars and the raw vocals that characterized each single death/thrash band in Brazil. All this were Dorsal Atlantica back to their debut and these influences were used welcome as a source of fresh water for those who wanted to play this genre in a country that surely didn’t shine for this music in that period.

Another think to notice is that at the time they shared the scene with Sepultura that released their debut mini CD the year before and in 1986 they put out their debut too, that unbelievable Morbid Visions. The main thing that differs from Sepultura is that Dorsal Atlantica were more thrash in style with a hint of Venom influences inside, taken directly from the true originators of the Brazilian extreme scene: Vulcano. The songs are never complex but always fast as a train and truly strong for attitude and impact. The production is what it is and that’s great because it’s the classic low budget sound that characterized lots of underground bands in those years.

The punkish influences come out with “Alcool” song that shows also good and less impulsive mid tempo parts. The vocals sometimes change in tonality and the falsetto screams are a surprise for me. The solos on these compositions are the classic angry and incredibly funny ones we can meet by mixing thrash metal with punk and a primordial form of death metal. The bass sound is incredibly hammering and quite audible because the bassist plays a lot of notes behind the guitars wall. Anyways, don’t expect technical parts and/or melodic refrains. Everything is raw as a sushi and I like it as it is.

There’s no will to slow down (except for “Guerrilha” song) and the lyrics follow the same violence of this sound, being about wars, violence and corruption. Another trademark for the Brazilian bands in that period, mad at the society and depressed by the poverty. In more or less 30 minutes the band achieves the goal of recreating scenarios of pure violence and obscurity through really violent and fast compositions. The main problem comes when we must talk about the catchiness because here, apart from the few screamed refrains and the same violent riffs, there is few left.

Dorsal Atlantica didn’t care about this and pushed orgiastic death/thrash riffs down our throats to remember how metal was in that period. A manifest for those who want to escape from the circle of the classic and most famous Brazilian acts and an occasion to discover the roots of a genre that in that period was living the most beautiful period of its life. Raw, imprecise, non catchy metal but somehow impressive, violent and damn nostalgic.

A smaller, semi-important shark in big waters - 70%

Gutterscream, July 14th, 2007
Written based on this version: 1986, 12" vinyl, Lunário Perpétuo Discos

Often left stranded in the jungle is Rio’s Dorsal Atlantica, especially when (semi) significant Brazilian bands are being rattled off for due acclamation, but by now it should be common knowledge Cro-Magnom, Hardcore, and Vandalo were there snappin’ necks with the rest of ‘em. But y’know what? There wasn’t an underground South American metal band that wasn’t stuck in the same boat. Everyone south of Panama was just as obscure as the next guy in ’86, and there was as much a chance of hearing Dorsal Atlantica as Sepultura, Vulcano and Mutilator, though the one (not really glaring) disadvantage for DA was the refuge they didn’t find in the Cogumelo stronghold. Wouldn’t really matter though, ‘cause it seems most of these early Brazilian acts went on to bravely record a slew of lps right into the ‘90s, most of which ran screaming into unknown rain forests to someday be rescued by determined explorers, especially thrash enthusiasts outside South America. Well, Dorsal Atlantica’s history is no different; their map was just as shitty.

Truthfully, there’s more to say about DA’s debut than Morbid Visions. Well, there is and there isn’t. Antes Do Fim holds firm, medium ground all the way, textured more evenly with similar tightly reckless speed picking (“Morte Aos Falsos”, “Vorkuta”, “Joseph Mengele” and junkyard dog opener “Cacador Da Noite”, especially), but hangs around with more melody that usually bumps around as long interludes (paying rent in most of these tracks, though inventive “Inveja” swirls some psychic paraphernalia into things while “Guerrilha” does little else but wander like a vagabond). Congested, grumpy vocals, fairly parallel to both records, makes everyone who cracked knuckles and grinned to Sepultura’s first full-lengther reasonably pleased.

Now, while Morbid Visions is furious on a lengthier scale, this nine-tracker knows when to hide its teeth to throw together a less despicable/more artful show – there’s been more horrible ideas, right? Maybe something with a twist of progressive intrigue, or a ‘touched’ but sane slice of personality to turn thrash’s tide of inhospitable Dark Angel and Razor-ish pureness back upon itself, like something Metallica never had a problem doing - a fine theory, but when good and bad angels pop up on each shoulder as the music spins…. Melody is dandy as long as it goes places people want to discover, and if it doesn’t…well, the television crackles and softly flickers to life, conversations about wart removers fester in a corner, snoring that can rattle a lumberjack roars, and in most cases, something else more interesting is thrown on to maintain the party’s quota of speaker damage. So, if you haven’t tripped over my drift yet, many of the melodic breaks and rests seem hatched more out of necessity than creativity, gunning hard to travel their desired direction but haven’t the leg strength to keep moving. Or maybe I’m just way off and was expecting too much from a young band stomping around metal’s most crowded alien region. In any case and despite the outcome, at least they tr(y)ied. Morbid Visions kept the virtuosity to a standard minimum and ultimately triumphed in the long run.

Just like every other Brazilian offering, the mix is produced-in-a-tunnel Cogumelo-style, meatier than the one for Morbid Visions, and is something that’s become endearing to all South American releases whether it’s roaming through forgotten foliage or marching up the main drag with a float behind it. To expect different is simply naivety.

As an entity of ’86 and beyond, Antes do Fim doesn’t spell out ‘spectacular’ in sparkly letters, but ‘decent’, ‘passable’ and even ‘okay’ are etched clearly in the mud, not that most of us can read it since it’s probably in Portuguese, just like the lp’s proven politically-charged lyrics. Honestly, I’d like to find more enjoyment in this album, but instead sitting through it tends to strain my endurance, my patience, and my system in general, and for a not-so-clever parallelism that has nothing to do with metal, or music for that matter, is its worldwide success can be considered a routine single lopped between the shortstop and third baseman, both of whom give it a few lazy steps and decide it’s not worth it. The left fielder jogs over to retrieve it because he has to.