Sarcófago - The Black Vomit Demo

You are being sent to Brazil. 

(Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on January 27th 2022)  

I am admittedly super late to the Sarcófago party, even though I’ve been listening to extreme metal for the past 5 years. It’s just one of those bands I didn’t feel particularly motivated to check out, despite them being right up my alley. But I recently checked out their iconic debut, I.N.R.I. and have gone on to binge the rest of their material. As I was perusing the Archives, I noticed that their The Black Vomit demo didn’t have any reviews written for it, which came as a surprise. I mean, how could one of the most revered bands in the underground not have anything written about its very first release? Upon closer inspection though things become perfectly clear.
There just isn’t much material for someone to dig their teeth into. “Recrucify” is an (admittedly cool) intro with wind sounds and growls, and both “Satanas” and “The Black Vomit” showed up on I.N.R.I. and The Laws of Scourge respectively. That being said, they sound quite different to what’s presented on the full-lengths. Both tracks bring to mind other classic thrash acts such as Slayer and Destruction, with the blackness presented on their other works being for the most part absent, and things being a bit cleaner all around. The aforementioned influences are more pronounced here than they would be in later works, where the band became an entirely unique beast in the metal sphere. Wagner’s vocals in particular are worth noting, seeing as he doesn’t growl much, but instead utilises a mid-range yell, and throws in a couple of Tom Araya-styled screams for good measure.
The production here, as one could expect from something recorded in Brazil in the mid-80s, is appropriately lo-fi, but surprisingly enough isn’t unlistenable. The buzzing guitars aren’t reduced to complete mud, the bass can actually be heard on occasion, and the drums actually sound pretty good. The mixing is murky, as one would expect, with the bass in particular being lost for the most part, and even then you can hear it plonk away during the (few) slow moments present here.
Like we’ve already established, The Black Vomit isn’t something particularly impressive, especially when compared to Sarcófago’s later output. Almost every song (sorry “Recrucify”) has shown up in one of the band’s albums, and they honestly sound better there than they do here. They’re still good, but their subsequent iterations simply sound much better. That being said, it’s an interesting curio that shows us where the band came from and what their influences were, and is worth at least a cursory listen from any fan of the band.
Highlight: The Black Vomit

Rating: 66%

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