Ties of Blood

Citizens of a nation whose heavy metal reputation was pretty much built upon extremity, São Paulo, Brazil's Korzus' only major sin was preferring their thrash and "straight-up" metal a little more than Satan-loving compatriots like Sepultura, Vulcano, and Sarcofago did — so sue them! Sure, Korzus also didn't help their own cause by failing to adopt the international language of rock — English — until they were several albums into their career, and then lost crucial credibility when they proceeded to hopscotch between metallic subgenres in an obvious attempt to ride the latest bandwagon. Of course that only forced Korzus to watch from the sidelines as their bright mid-'80s prospects vanished up in smoke instead, and their embarrassingly inept stab at crossover hardcore on 1995's KZS appeared to nail their coffin shut for good. However, ten years and a lot of humble pie later, they were back with three out of five original members and a powerful fifth studio album in 2004's Ties of Blood, which showed renewed faith in their thrashy roots. These roots could be heard all over the disc via propulsive numbers like "Guilty Silence," "Respect," "Cruelty," and "Screaming for Death" — the last of which may have looked worrisomely hardcore-esque at one and a half minutes in length, but was in fact a pure thrasher of incredible quality and speed. The excellent "Punisher," too, started off as if fired from a cannon, but soon changed up the pace some to make way for a very cool (and Testament-like) middle section over which guitarists Silvio Golfetti and Heros Trench could solo their asses off. Likewise, "Evil Sight" was a solid old-school thrash ballad, and the title track did a fabulous amount of good damage with its Pantera-sized grooves. And just because they're old and wise enough to acknowledge where they've been, Korzus made the bouncy, Soulfly-inspired "Correria" one of two Portuguese-sung ditties, alongside the inevitable hardcore (damn you!) stomper "Peça Perdão." All in all, a fine return to action for the long-suffering Brazilian metal veterans, and because it actually enjoys a decent-quality production to go with its consistently memorable songs, Ties of Blood easily qualifies as one of Korzus' finest efforts.