Sinistro Offer Track-by-Track Look at Sangue Cássia
Posted in Features on March 1st, 2018 by JJ Koczan
While I’m sure it’s less of an issue for you because you’re more worldly and up on your stuff generally than I am, my ignorant American ass doesn’t speak Portuguese. Add it to a long and ever-growing list of sources of personal shames. The upshot of this, however is that when it comes to Lisbon-based doomers Sinistro and their third and latest album for Season of Mist, Sangue Cássia, most of what I’m going on in trying to understand the album and its eight component tracks — seven originals and a closing cover of Paradise Lost, with whom Sinistro toured Europe last fall — is second-hand knowledge and what of the overall mood I can derive from the atmosphere.
Fortunately, when it comes right down to it Sangue Cássia wants nothing for mood or atmosphere. Its doom runs through the pulsating emotionalist vein of the aforementioned Paradise Lost or even a melody-fronted My Dying Bride — lest we forget to mention top Portuguese metal exports Moonspell— with vocalist Patricia Andrade bringing significant character to pieces like “Petalas” and rolling 11-minute album opener and longest track (immediate points) “Cosmos Controle,” as well as the Euro-fest-ready loud/quiet trades and crawling tempo of “Abismo,” on which the guitars of Rick Chain and Ricardo Matias meet head-on with the low-end rumble of Fernando Matias‘ bass and the intermittent roll of Paulo Lafaia‘s drums, further synth ambience from Matias fleshing out an already deep-running arrangement mix.
And yet, amid this complexity of presentation — which, rest assred only grows more prevalent as the five-piece head toward the finale of “Cravo Carne,” though the threatrical “Nuvem” and “Gardenia,” which trades between some of the darkest metal and some of the brightest melodies oN Sangue Cássia as a whole — Sinistro maintain a sense of poise that lets them keep their feet firmly planted despite the swirling winds of the tempest they’ve created. Still, part of me sure would like to know what these songs are actually about, and fortunately the band was willing to comply with that desire — fucking imperialist American — and sent over the following brief track-by-track rundown.
Please enjoy:
Sinistro, Sangue Cássia Track-by-Track:
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“Cosmos Controle” explore different landscapes, ambience to describe a voyage. A lovers voyage lost in the night. A voyage into their feelings. Feeling so much it hurts.They lost each other.
“Lótus” Is a place where heaven in hell are together. Is an empty kingdom of a single man taking a peek at emptiness in search of a divine encounter to save himself.
“Pétalas” Portrays an inner voyage in which existentialism is perpetuated , the escape, the mismatch. A plunge in our ruins to be reborn through purge.
“Vento Sul” Describe a state of mind where the questioning is permanent . The south wind is the element that will bring some answers. For that, you need to listen yourself and wait.
“Abismo” is a song where you get into a woman´s dialogue with mountain high walls. A place of two voices with wounds and wreckage sounds. From dialogue to a monologue,in silence, start a journey to find herself in and with the world.
“Nuvem” is a metaphor to speak about existence. In where do you want to see yourself and the impermanence of life.
“Gardénia” is a story about a woman who lives on the street describing her life memories and her loss.
“Cravo Carne” speaks about the age of fear, the time before the end. A reflexion about aging.
“Ferida” is a description about a man and his small town landscape as a form to ilustrate his soul wounds.
“Nothing Sacred” the song from Paradise Lost that we made a cover was a good challenge. We decided to choose a song that was not a obvious choice, in which the vocals would fit naturally.
