There is nothing like starting a new year with a new release, and that’s exactly what happened with the Portuguese band Sinistro. Their 3rd full-length album, “Sangue Cassia”, arrived on the first days of the year. We find in Sinistro’s global work a raw and irrefutable doom known for its dense and dark atmosphere which had a major turning point in 2013 with their collaboration with Patricia Andrade (“Cidade”). With this alliance, the band acquired a very peculiar and distinctive feature: blending doom riffs with the seductive and haunting voice of Patricia Andrade, whom also brought some innuendos of Fado to this act, created something unique. Now, after those metamorphoses, the band comes to us with the result of the consolidation of their career.
This work starts unceremonious and fearlessly with “Cosmos Controle”, as if its first chord was just an extension of their previous record’s last track (Semente – “Fragmento”). We are immediately pulled into a deep and dense vortex of doom, as soon as the first riffs are brought to life. When Patricia starts singing the differences in the production (comparing to their previous works) become evident. The despair of absurdism is a constant in the narrative of this monochromatic and surrealist world where chaos and our deepest turmoils emerge.
This is a very raw and visceral work and more than ever Sinistro lives up to its name and wraps us in an atmosphere extremely dark and somber. This vibe becomes particularly tangible with the first notes of “Lotus” and the soundscape that gradually builds up the slow cadence of the drum work and the riffs along with the slurred words sang by Patricia turn this track into an absolute gloomy dirge.
As we keep diving, “Vento do Sul” entangles us in a climax where the alternation between the thick minor doom tones and the piercing distorted tremolos expand the music to a new level. The distraught intensity of the guitars sounds like a hopeless plea, as if in their darkness and damnation, the doomed were desperately yearning for something higher, pure and sacred. This despair and turmoil constantly present in the aesthetics of the band are remarkably well depicted in the videos of “Pétalas” and “Abismo”.
Although this is a good and consistent album delivered by a band that keeps growing and maturing, it is also a decisive moment to the group’s career. It’s that relatively steady moment when a band must start thinking about reinventing itself without losing its identity – especially after the refreshing blast and seduction of works like “Cidade” and “Semente”. Or else, it they might end up in a vortex of predictability and monotony.
7/10
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