PENTAGRAM (CHILE)
PENTAGRAM (CHILE) "Eternal Life of Madness"
By Dr. Abner Mality
If anybody deserves a trophy for perseverance in underground metal, it's got to be Anton Reisenegger of Chile's PENTAGRAM. Not to be confused with America's even longer lasting doom metal band, Reisenegger's version of PENTAGRAM has been walking the Earth since 1985. With SEPULTURA about to hang it up, that makes PENTAGRAM (CHILE) the chief greybeards of the South American death/thrash scene.
Expect very little concession to modernity on "Eternal Life of Madness". This is unabashed worship of old school metal gods like SLAYER, early SEPULTURA, CELTIC FROST and pre-"Human" DEATH. To be absolutely blunt, the songcraft here does sound dated, but this is the kind of music Reisenegger and company were raised on and they are still doggedly loyal to it. If that's what you're looking for, you'll get it here.
This reeks of the era when thrash and death metal were virtually the same thing. Pre-"Roots" SEPULTURA is probably the biggest influence, as tracks like "The Portal" and "Omniscient Tyrant" leap from riff to chugging riff. "No One Shall Survive" has the lurching primitive doom of CELTIC FROST and then blasts out like POSSESSED. Shorter, quicker tunes such as "Devourer of Life" and "Deus Est Machina" have a definite DEATH feel. Reisenegger himself delivers an impassioned vocal performance, particularly on the Lovecraftian tale "The Seed of the Deed".
The biggest trouble with PENTAGRAM (CHILE) is that they don't quite measure up to the bands that have obviously inspired them. Fans of more modern death metal are liable to find their approach simplistic. So be it. Despite this, there's still some fun to be had with PENTAGRAM (CHILE). So give these guys a break, they surely deserve one.