Expurgo – Live Obscenity

Formed in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, Expurgo is one of those acts that perfectly defines and encapsulates what true grindcore should sound like, unleashing their vicious brand of powerful, masterfully crafted noise since 1997.

Like so many of their Brazilian peers in the genre, they offer a new and exciting approach to writing and composing symphonies of brutality that can cause serious ear bleeding if you’re not careful and get hooked on their unrelenting sound—and it’s hard not to, the band has a highly productive reputation for releasing better and better material throughout the years. And if you listen to their entire discography, they are definitely evolving over time, adding new techniques to their overall sound and experimenting with different approaches to writing.

It can be said without a doubt that they are one of the greatest, most promising and prominent grind bands of the last 20 years, along with, for example, Death Toll 80k, Insect Warfare, Bloody Phoenix, Dispeppsia, or Subcut. And that says a lot, considering the competition in the digital age.

Expurgo’s latest release, Live Obscenity, is actually a recording of the band’s performance in July 2018 at the 20th anniversary edition of the cult Czech festival Obscene Extreme. It was recorded by Lunatic Media, mixed by Philipe Belisário & Expurgo at Lacraias Studio and produced by the band themselves and Fernando Camacho. And I must say that the result is more than pleasing, the 25 songs sound excellent and the atmosphere of the live performance is captured in an eloquent way, while still sounding like a great studio recording. They certainly did their best for this release, you rarely see a live album with such a great quality.

Four of the songs are covers of very important bands in the genre—Ulcerous Phlegm, Impetigo, Corrupted and last but not least—Sweden’s goregrind pioneers Regurgitate. Everything else is material from Expurgo’s extensive studio catalog. The sound is clean, viciously fun, as brutal as it gets—and as I said, this is a rare example of a live album that captures the energy of the performance while still sounding like a good and very professionally done studio release.

Support the band on their official Bandcamp page or through Black Hole Productions, the CD release is limited to 300 copies. Disappointment is not an option with this band, as they have consistently shown us a high level of technical and creative proficiency and productivity. And they don’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon!