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The follow-up to the highly acclaimed Soul Cleansing CD finds Portugal's Sektor 304 expanding on all aspects of their debut, once again channeling the essence of the old school guardians (Test Dept, SPK, Crash Worship), while simultaneously exploring new, uncharted territory.

Comparatively speaking, Subliminal Actions is a more complete and focused album, with an even better flow than Soul Cleansing and more attention paid to detail, unleashing a cacophonic whirlwind of buzz saw grind, loops, power tools, and scraping, junk metal debris, clashing head on with exertive tribal percussion, clanging oil barrel rhythms, and industrial clamor resonating over a sprawling, post- apocalyptic wasteland. Some tracks, such as the opener, “A Carving on Metallic Flesh”, heap on the scorching noise, while others, such as the resounding, rhythmic driven “By The Throat”, “A Vessel of Guilt”, or “Vultures” are delivered with factory-line precision, laced with grimy layers of bass-heavy dirge, bleak, reverbed squall, and distortion filled, atmospheric drone. Among the many highlights, is the albums closer, “A Prismatic Sun”, a 10 + minute epic excursion into a nightmarish world, populated by whispered vocals and uneasy drift that slowly rises and grows in intensity, climaxing into a blissfully dark and sweaty orgy of low slung bass, ominous, ceremonial drumming, and suffocating darkness.

 Subliminal Action not only compliments Soul Cleansing, but takes the Sektor 304 sound to new heights, delivering yet striking record sure to solidify their standing as one of premier, truly industrial acts in operation today.

After i play a gig, friends usually ask me how it went. Some do it just for the sake of being polite. Others for being curious. I never quite know if i should stick with the short or long answer. And usually Murphy’s Law is at it’s best here, so whenever i retork a brief remark folks expect more and vice-versa.

Since i was back in Porto for the holidays I took the oportunity to play a gig on the second day of the 4th edition of Festival Matanças. So this time i decided to write a report about it. Incidently it seems to be quite hard to talk about a concert without contextualizing the festival it was part of so here goes.

Matanças means killings in portuguese. As in the act of slaughtering. The good folks of Soopa et al have been organizing this festival every year, always on the 22nd and 23rd of December, for the last 4 years. It usually features bands vaguely related to the carnal and raw. I actually digged up the original press release of the first edition, just do describe it more clearly: “The festival featured numerous bands from the local psychic-death, anarcho-satanic and contemporary-occult.” So, lots of shaman and pagan rituals, devil worshipping, pentagrams, red candles and altars with all things rotten and evil are always to be expected and present. The blinking xmas lights gives it a warm holiday spirit too.

Ler mais... memórias do Matanças IV

Vídeo de Banana Metalúrgica no Festival Matanças IV, na Casa Viva (Porto).