Hot upon the heels of the trailblazing Krisiun comes Nephasth, an entry into the quickly emerging New Wave of Brazilian Death Metal. As is the case with their better-known peers, the most impressive quality of Nephasth's music is the single-minded intensity with which it is executed. With a sound largely drawn from '80s death metal originators like Morbid Angel and Deicide (but even faster), this quartet from Brazil's southernmost capital, Porto Alegre, is quite simply a pile-driving, death metal machine, spewing a tightly focused racket of mind-blowing proportions. And yet for all their manic velocity, anthems of violence and obliteration like "Useless Cross," "Flames Triumph," and "False Pride" are packed to the gills with well-rehearsed dynamic devices, including rhythms which turn on a dime, then launch into new riffs which have heads spinning simply trying to keep up. One-dimensional this is not -- though no one but devout death metal enthusiasts will be able to grasp the subtle distinctions between this well-conceived material and a load of pointless noise. A great start. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia