Formed in 1985 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, MUTILATOR released only two albums, "Immortal Force" in 1987 and "Into the Strange" in 1988. They were a fixture of the Brazilian metal scene before their dissolution in 1993. This remastered version of "Immortal Force" was released on January 14, 2017, by Greyhaze Records.

On this release, MUTILATOR is a thrash band's thrash band. The vocals are incoherent bellowing, the instruments are usually trying to hit a BPM personal record (nearly to the extent of abandoning tempo entirely) with each subsequent song and the whole thing sounds like the soundtrack to a seizure, and thrashers wouldn't have it any other way.  SACROFAGO (another Latin American band with not one but two inverted crosses in their logo) is probably the closest analog, with SLAYER serving as a more distant comparison.  These aren't just stylistic comparisons, mind: the band's technical chops are pretty substantial. The compositions are fairly well-varied, and the band deserve some credit for slowing down every once in a while for some groovier mid-tempo riffs. The into to "Memorial Stone Without a Name" and the middle section of "Butcher" and "War Dogs" are particularly good in this regard.

The production is essentially perfect for the style. The guitars have just the right amount of grimy buzz to balance out the precision of palm-muted riffs, meaning that the instrument does really shred in the best sense of the word. This becomes particularly evident when everything else drops out to let the guitar do a little intro before the song kicks in again, as in the title track "Immortal Force", "Evil Conspiracy" and the beginning of "Tormented Soul". Meanwhile, the leads get some nice reverb to float above the chaos. The drums boom and the vocals echo, the entire band congealing into an indoor tempest swirling around a concrete room. You could argue the instruments blend together, but this is likely intentional and more to the point makes the band sound more intense. The remastering does not appear to have meaningfully neutered the sound as it's still very retro - it's simply louder and cleared up just enough to allow the individual instruments to shine a little more. Fans of this group and thrash in general should definitely take the time to pick it up.