This complete re-work of FNI’s 2005 debut LP, Fellatrix Discordia Pantokrator, is another frontrunner for 2018 Album of the Year. As soon as the first track starts, you know exactly what you’re in for.
If you draw a triangle between the black/thrash of Nocturnal Breed, the black/speed of Midnight, and a strip-club house band that plays really sleazy rock-metal, well, you’d have a hell of a triangle, and FNI would be somewhere within it. These Portuguese metallers play a unique blend of black/thrash/speed with a heavy dose of traditional metal and rock influences (and a bit of NWOBHM in places). Because of the disparity of the components that FNI are working with, every song has a different feel, from the alternating anthemic uplift/chaotic downpull of Moïra to the NWOBHM-ish thrash assault of A Forca to the trad-metal rock-out of Sacra Morte.
What really makes the varied feel of the album is the guitar work, which seamlessly employs the idiosyncratic ingredients of the different influences as appropriate: chunky thrash riffing, catchy rock hooks, glammy pinch harmonics, virtuoso trad metal solos, ripping thrash solos- it’s all there, and it all fits together like it’s meant to be.
Drumming is similarly varied, ranging from d-beats and thrash-style work to more standard rock arrangements. As with the guitar work, all of the disparate styles are used to create a seamless, ass-kicking whole. The vocals remind me of Nocturnal Breed more than anything else: a sleazy-sounding blackish raspy shout.
Production is fairly big, providing a very crankable sound, and is suitably dirty but not too raw, about the equivalent of Nocturnal Breed’s “medium” level of filth (see The Tools of the Trade, for example). Perfectly suited to the material.
Standout tracks: Vermes de Guerra: Cona Nuclear, Eixos do Caos, Calypso.
(c) 2018 Old Man Metal
Old Man Metal's Musings 
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