Put that pipe down, it's time for a Metal review! Ok pick up the pipe again if you want, I'm not the pipe police, do what you want. We witness a rebirth this week, a rerelease of "Profanus" by MYSTIFIER. Personally, I hadn't heard of this band previously, which is apparently a grievous error on my part. These Brazilian stalwarts have been head-hunting posers and blaring blasphemy through speakers for decades now. I couldn't really discern much from the cluttered album cover. Between the skull, the nature, the arm-snake, the church segment, the centipede, spider, and the two varied kinds of font - I imagined some kind of artificial intelligence put this album cover together. Oh well, I assume albums fall into the same realm as books when it comes to judging.

From the first few moments of insane laughter, you are quickly bashed in the head with an unrelenting flurry of killer riffs and brutal vocals. This is great old school Blackened Death Metal, but it gets taken a step further by the introduction of some keys that resemble an organ. It adds an extra layer of ominous dread that really gives this music a unique feel. I thought this would potentially become an issue if the keyboards are overdone but thankfully the second song "Dare To Face The Beast" shows that the band is aware of Metal needing to be first and foremost, intense. There's no tomfoolery or twinkling bells and whistles, it's just straight extreme music.

The guitar work on this one is of the steak variety - meaty, succulent, and rife with death. It's got solid head banging parts to carry the songs forward but also has some intensely sick solos. The song "Supreme Power Of Suffering" is essentially a Melo-Death song and is one of the top tracks on the album. However any song is a great selection to showcase the ripping string mastery.

The drumming and bass on this are both deep and a little cavernous sounding which I dug. Everything is just dirty and distorted enough to give the entire album a grimy feel. Vocals run the whole gamut, most of the time you get a scratchy growl backed by an even scratchier, more hoarse, growl. There is a song or two with cleans/whispering/chanting during a chorus, but other than that it's mostly the classics. Oh, except for when the opera stops by. Yup that's right, drop that biscotti, cause here comes Pavarotti. The song "Superstitious Predictions Of Misfortune" features straight up fancy-style warbling. If the song itself wasn't so intense I would be taken aback by it. However, in my old age, the KING DIAMOND fan in me can appreciate some theatrics. The tenor tantrums return briefly in the song "Thus Demystifier Spoke". While they are still so out of place that I chuckled when I heard them, I couldn't deny that the songwriting is still skull-breaking-ly brutal and it made me appreciate the novelty more.

I think one of the best parts about this whole release is that MYSTIFIER knows not to overuse anything. The keyboards and organ music, the goofy vocal stuff, nothing gets made part of the repertoire and it all comes out better for it. The songs change pace and tone without overstaying their welcome while the sick Thrash-y interludes permeate each track. It's a solid medley of killer tracks that garner the evilest of horns being raised to honor this destructive release.

As a bonus the last few tracks on the album are from a live performance and they are pretty decently recorded. The sound is dense and heavy, perfect for some neck trauma-inducing head movements. I was thoroughly surprised by this hidden goblet of carnage. It's not afraid to take risks while still maintaining an absolutely devastating sound. I'm a sucker for a good solo and a mean riff and they come in spades here. The opera stuff is so slight and sandwiched in between some of the deepest hooks that it's easy to overlook it if you just want some Heavy fuckin' Metal. Definitely snatch this one up. For fans of BLASFEMIA, SARCOFAGO, FLAMES OF HELL, BATHORY, SEPULTURA, PESTILENCE, SADUS, and NOCTURNUS