Review Summary: Mescaline nightmares
There is a demon in all of us driving our spirits to the unknown, a devouring hunger that feeds on our darkest fantasies, and there is no way our inquisitive minds can resist its call. For many years, psychedelic music has tried to emulate the descent into the dark corners of the mind through the psychotropic experiences of those who fathered the boundless genre. In the 60s, the Beatles guided us through strawberry fields; that took forever. In the 70s, Black Sabbath showed us how to commune with Satan, while in the 80s we colonized space. The 90s came and everyone was tired of everything, so we embraced the new millennia, and suddenly we all just wanted to be healthy. But there are still those who relentlessly explore the chasms of insanity, maybe not in search of enlightenment, but just because they can't find their way back anymore.
Most of these bands nowadays end up in Neurot Recordings. The record label built and helmed by those gods of the occult that operate as Neurosis have become the sanctuary for many bands that defy rhyme and reason. Brazilian psycho-punk troopers Deafkids are one of their latest additions to the roster. Back in 2017, Steve Von Till succumbed to the trio's deranged mix of crust punk, industrial psychedelia and samba.
Configuração do lamento was Deafkids' first contribution to the label's ever-growing catalog. It was the malformed spawn of Ministry and Sepultura, born out of noise rock and laid down to die out of thirst under the merciless Brazilian sun. Two years later, the band has traveled deeper and further into the realms of ritual madness, and
Metaprogramação is what they have found.
Deafkids' latest release is impossible to measure. It is a vortex of distortion, tribal drums and echoed screams that occasionally take the shape of some sort of proto-punk in tracks like "Mente Bicameral", "Templo do Caos" and "Virus da Imagem do Ser", three of the most, if not the only accessible gateways into the trio's nefarious delirium. "Vox Dei" welcomes the brave with a voodoo chant that suggests them they are trespassing into accursed territory, and once "Alucinações de Comando" kicks in, there is just no turning back. Aural hallucinations parade during the album's forty minutes inexorably. Industrial hymns of corruption like "Pacto de Máscaras" embroil the flayed mind of the listener with extensive crust outbursts like "Raiz Negativa (Não-Vontade)", where the band members communicate each other in indecipherable codes of noise, synth destruction and unhinged drumming.
Metaprogramação is indeed one hell of a trip. I want to say that those familiar with Neurosis' early catalog and the label's roster will feel at home when experimenting the primal evil that Deafkids have summoned, but even those seasoned ears will doubt between laying back and taking it all in or resort to skipping. Some say the forbidden fruit tastes sweeter but when it comes to Deafkids the sweetest thing you are going to get is the terrible feel of having profaned frontiers you probably shouldn't have.
