Incubus
Serpent Temptation

Seventh meeting of "Exploring the Forgotten Death Metal", starring Incubus. "Incubus? The ones from 'I Wish You Were Here?'. No, not at all; you should know that there are quite a few bands with this name and in particular, at the beginning of my career as a Death Metal fan, I was looking for the U.S. Incubus (authors of a single demo from 1987, 'God Died On His Knees'). Instead, I found this album by the Brazilian Incubus which, ironically, are another primordial Death Metal band.

The record was released way back in 1988 and, we can say, it has just two elements of Death: the Growl and the Blast Beat. Without these two elements, it could be classified as Thrash Metal of good quality, but still Thrash Metal; in short, 'Serpent Temptation' is in the middle, a hybrid without much art but with some substance. Were it not for the fact that three years earlier, Possessed had done the same with their 'Seven Churches', this LP could well compete with the aforementioned for the title of "Link between Thrash and Death".

Obviously, given the remote era and the musical isolation of Brazil, fellow compatriots and more or less contemporaries Sepultura are the main influencers of these (it is indeed appropriate to use the determiner) Incubus. Truth be told, American Thrash also plays a key role in the birth of this record, but it is obvious that the first name that comes to mind given their homeland is that of the Cavaliera group; in my opinion, however, there are very evident traces of the first (considered by some the only) Metallica album, 'Kill 'Em All'.

The only thing that really pushes me to review such a record is the date because otherwise, it has nothing special: or rather, it has something special for die-hard Thrasher fans, certainly not for a Death Metaller who sees in it a kind of confused and grumbling grandfather.

The riffing is, as usual, aggressive and sharp but devoid of the lethal barrages that characterize Death Metal works. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that it is not badly played, even if compared to more properly Death CDs it may seem elementary; the speed of execution is always high, never a drop in tension. I repeat that personally it is not really my genre but being objective, one can find good ideas or, at least, one can acknowledge that it hits hard. The drumming, compared to the guitars, turns out to be more technical even if far from the definition of "virtuoso": some blast beats every now and then make it a bit more varied and especially (given the period of release) more "new". The growl, if we want to call it that, once again is nothing short of terrible; I think a dachshund kicked by Chuck Billy (the very robust singer of Testament) would not produce very different sounds. A real mess.

To conclude, there is that burden of a bassist, someone who until two days earlier might have been a cook and then decided he had music in his blood; let's understand each other, if taken individually these guys would be good for selling pistachios at the circus but together they also manage to concoct something decent. The songs manage not to be annoying and even if they are not beautiful, they deserve to leave some trace in Death history: and then, excuse me, but as long as a record like Dismember's 'Death Metal' has a place, indeed, is literally revered as a masterpiece, I will feel entitled, indeed, obliged, to make the world know the Brazilian Incubus. These poor guys, in the middle of the Mato Grosso, managed to churn out a work not beautiful but respectable like 'Serpent Temptation' and when they received anything for this record, it must have been kicks in the ass, while the others (I hate them), in one of the most fertile centers of Metal, received rivers of dollars for that aforementioned fart. What is most annoying is that of Dismember, people still speak at every step, while of these, apart from some unfortunate soul who thanks them in a booklet corner, no one remembers them anymore: and those few who thank them show instead that they also did something in their small way with this 'Serpent Temptation' and with the next 'Beyond The Unknown' of 1990 (already more into Death and finally decently produced). Without needing to incense them, it's worth giving this record a listen, especially if you are lovers of old-style metal.