Mácula/Extinction Remains - "s/t" (Defense Records/Last World Records, 2020)

Bands: Mácula/Extinction Remains

Title: s/t

Genre: Crust Punk/Black Metal+Crusty Death/Doom Metal

Time: 33.33 min

Release date: 5th November 2019

Vote: 76/100

One year ago I cited an upcoming all-Brazilian split between Mácula and Extinction Remains, that I received from Mythrone at the early days of 2020, when (almost) no one thought that a nightmarish virus would strike the entire world. Well, after a lot of time, I am going to review this interesting split that, released during the end of 2019 in a co-production between Defense Records and Last World Records, shows two very different bands, both presenting a sound of their own.

The split album starts with Mácula, a quartet born in 2010. Their tracks are three and, in two of them, they play a raw, blasting but quite melodic combination between crust punk and black metal. For me, their best track is surely their first one, "Cultivando Certezas Rúpteis", that I consider even a true masterpiece because, through its seven minutes and 40 seconds of lenght, there is a memorable crescendo beginning in a slow and atmospheric way and closing with the total violence. Instead, the following "Travessia" is an instrumental intermezzo that has some psychedelic tunes but, to say the truth, it's too lenghty and monotonous for my tastes. The Mácula's side ends with "Muro de Palavras", violent and containing thrash metal-oriented riffs here and there.

We already knew Extinction Remains on these pages, so they do need no introduction. They have five tracks on this split, and all of them continue in the same style with which the band is known since their first releases: an anguishing but dynamic and massive death/doom metal with crust punk influences that shows a strong ecologist consciousness but with no hope in the mankind; a sound punctuated by the terrifying and echoed vocals of the bassplayer Arthur. Mentionable tracks are "Plastic Sea", that has slight black metal tunes in some points, and the closing "Human Presence (After the Earth)", full of apocalyptic vibes emphasized by desolating passages close to the funeral doom metal but also by a finale with a sort of guitar solo. The problem is that Extinction Remains are used to offer an instrumental in every release of them but this time they exaggerated a bit because there are even two instrumentals in this split: "Swamp of Destruction" (that starts with a female spoken intro about the ecological disaster of Brumadinho, Brazil, happened in 25th January 2019) and "Ecological Collapse". In this way, the band extremizes too much its tendency to play often without vocals and, as I said one year ago, this is a shame since Arthur has a very effective growl that could be used more than now (for example, I adore his very frightening performance in "Plastic Sea"!).

To sum it up, we are in presence of a split that is perfect not only for the extreme metalheads but also for the punks that are into the crust/d-beat madness. Of Mácula and Extinction Remains, I've to say I prefer the former also only for "Cultivando Certezas Rúpteis", that is my favorite song of the entire split and that I included in "Come on, burn my ears! #6" (instead, I featured Extinction Remains in "Come on, burn my ears! #2"). Now there is to report a kind of benefit in which Mácula are involved: in fact, if I understood well, they are helping with their collective their friend Ricardo Chacal from Uniformes Negros (a Brazilian extreme metal/HC distro specialized on black t-shirts), whose house was recently burst into flames with the consequence that he lost everything. If you would like to contribute to this cause, go to the FB page of Crust or Die collective, so you'll have every infos you need.

Tracklist:

1 - Cultivando Certezas Rúpteis

2 - Travessia

3 - Muro de Palavras

4 - Swamp of Destruction

5 - Why?

6 - Ecological Collapse

7 - Plastic Sea

8 - Human Presence (After the Earth)

Mácula's line-up:

Caleb - vocals

Italo - guitars

Debie - bass

Bal - drums

Extinction Remains' line-up:

Arthur - vocals/bass

Caio - guitars

Artur - guitars

Mateus - drums

Mácula: https://www.facebook.com/maculacrust

Extinction Remains: https://www.facebook.com/extinctionremains

Defense Records: https://www.facebook.com/defensemerch

Last World Records: https://www.facebook.com/lastworldrecords