In the year of 1986, world came to know that Brazil had a boiling cauldron of Metal that generated many extreme Metal names that became references throughout the world, being some of them cult legends into the depths of underground since then. One of them is SARCÓFAGO, from Minas Gerais, one of the forefathers of Black Metal as it's known today (and who helped to create some layers for Death Metal as well). "I. N. R.I." is a blueprint album for Black Metal along BATHORY's "Under the Sign of the Black Mark", "Rotting" and "The Laws of Scourge" helped to create some musical definitions for Black/Death Metal, and along with "Hate" and "The Worst" (their most extreme albums in terms of speed) are albums that every extreme Metal fan must have on their collections. But "Crust" (their final work, a 4-songs EP) was a very hard item to find until this moment and thanks for this reissue, many fans finally will have one copy of it.

As everyone knows, the duet never did the same thing (musically speaking) on their albums, but always kept their identity. "Crust" follows "The Worst" musical formula, but being extreme in terms of speed (besides some slower parts can be heard in many moments), and it has distorted vocals (even more grunted than before, in a way that the listener barely can understand what the lyrics says). The guitar riffs as sharp as always (as the solos are truly sick and nasty), and bass guitar and drums create a solid rhythmic mass. It's not their most technical work, but aggressive in a way that would make many bands blush. Yes, it sounds brutal and extremely aggressive

The sound quality of "Crust" is crude to reinforce the extreme approach, but keeping a good level of clarity. Everyone can understand what is being played due the sound production, and the instrumental tunes were set to be as raw as they could, but remembering that SARCÓFAGO is a band from the 80's, when to sound extreme and raw wasn't meant to be dirty in a way that no one could have an idea of what the band was playing. "Sonic Images of the New Millenium Decay" begins with a calm and tender instrumental prelude before erupting into a brutal song with nasty vocals as guitars, with tempos being slower, and it sounds as an intro to the fast massacre imposed by "Day of the Dead", a song filled with extreme guitar riffs (but there are slow parts here and there as well). On "F. O. M. B. M.", the essence is the same from the previous song, but some guitar parts will remind the listener from "I. N. R. I." riffs. And "Crust" is brutal and oppressive on its slower moments, showing that bass guitar and the drums (programmed once more) are creating a massive rhythmic work, and the vocals aren't as distorted as on the other songs.

As my final words, it must be noted that "Crust" isn't their best release, and sometimes it can sounds as a joke. But to the SARCÓFAGO's legions of fans, it is their swansong, so it earns a sentimental value, and deserves to be acquired. Oh, it's truly good as well.