Vulcano - Bloody Vengeance-LP-

This was made in 1986. This is without doubt the greatest achievement in aggression from that year, beating even Kreator's frantic Pleasure To Kill and Dark Angel's raw Darkness Descends. There is no need for dark or melodramatic introductions on this album. It just takes off with a loud bang, going for your jugular with the very black metal-like riffing of Dominions of Death. Crazy double bass races along with the riffs - who will be the first one to make you yield? You just cannot know, especially when Angel's vocals enter the stage. An insane roar that seems to verge on singing, but man, that's some righteously crazed singing. The drum sound is nothing short of awesome with its crispness, achieving that seldom encountered hypnotism that is found on Darkthrone's Transylvanian Hunger. Last but not least, Dominions of Death includes two guitar leads, and both of them are gorgeous. This is not Slayer divebombing + whammy bar nuttery (and Reign In Blood was a bit marred by the loquaciousness of King and Hanneman, whose solos went on and on like an uncle who loves to hear himself talking, no matter how shitty the topic), and it is so much more delicious than the horrendously inept leads that Kreator delivered on Pleasure To Kill. Hendrix, Arthur Lee, Ron Asheton, Keiji Haino smile from the flames, and the flames seem to be fueled by amphetamine galore. You just don't fuck with this - wheezing, yelling, scraping flurries of metallic notes are lashed out by the mighty electric axe. 

From here on, the fun just keeps on flowing from giant goblets. The songs on this album are quite similar in structure (except the grind blitzkrieg of Ready To Explode and the doom and gloom of the title track, which sounds highly similar to Celtic Frost and early Root), but when one is dealing with such sturdy songs, the only thing to do is lay back and shut the fuck up. The drummer shuns Dave Lombardo or Gene Hoglan acrobatics, usually opting for a style rather devoid of fills, but he clearly beats them at the speed game and delivers a fascinating performance on Ready To Explode with a jazz-like build-up at the middle of the track that is every bit as soulful as a Walt Whitman poem. At times, Vulcano make even Siege sound like The Who, without reaching Repulsion standards. The riffs' punishing melodies and grim tone drive the songs home with class, and the fact that a song does not feature n-squared riffs is nothing to be ashamed of with such high-octane riffs galloping around. I do prefer two-three yummy, efficient riffs to a whole bucket of abortions. The guitar leads are similar to the first track in their approach: the banshee-fucking-a-cyborg-in-agony approach. They are chock full of high notes and flutter in and out of timbral chaos, sometimes sounding like coming from a detuned guitar (take the brilliant Spirits of Evil for example with its bloodthirsty lead ending in atonal squeaks), but sounding exciting is the main goal, not tuning one's guitar properly, duh. And they succeeded on this album. Every song has a little something to distinguish itself from the others, and some of them (Spirits Of Evil and the title track) feature prominently the full-bodied, round sound of Zhema's bass, rivaling Mortuary Drape... hold it, I missed something. Yes, as a whole, this band is actually above Mortuary Drape, at least on this album. Angel's vocals stay riveting throughout the whole album, never letting down. The raw emotion in the vocals is so palpable that you can almost chew on it.

The album benefits from an inspired combination of songwriting and brevity. Vulcano realized the vital importance of being to the point - probably because they only had 24 hours to record the album - and didn't have any dreams of crafting songs of epic lengths. But they surely did their best to put out songs of epic intensity, and this masterpiece is the result. The only (very petty) complaint that I would have is due to the ending of the title track, a bit anticlimactic in comparison to the rest of the pieces on this album, and for that I have chosen to take away 2 points.

The rest of 98? Totally deserved. Words have failed me in this review, and this album is an immortal favorite in my heart. Get it now or get the fuck out of this planet, a world without Vulcano's Bloody Vengeance is no world worth living in.