Caixão Premiere Entre o Velho Tempo Futuro in Full
Brazilian proto-heavy specialists Caixão are set to digitally release their second album, Entre o Velho Tempo Futuro, on Monday, Sept. 30 (vinyl in November), through Glory or Death Records. Their debut, Da Porta ao Sumiço, arrived on Halloween 2020 — spooky indeed — and as obscure-horror buffs can probably tell you, their moniker translates to English as “coffin.” A straightforward, evocative object, a memento mori and something that feels ancient and steeped in tradition could hardly be more fitting to the band’s sound, which draws in vintage style from the heavy ’70s and rawer modern garage doom even unto the application of the fadeout at the end of “Bloodstains.”
The unpolished 1960s-born sound of the organ in opener “Fungos,” “Luz Estranha em Quixadá” and the later “Talvez” can tell you a lot about where they’re coming from, but across the span, Entre o Velho Tempo Futuro plays less for volume than to nestle into its own groove, mellow but weighted in the manner of your grandfather’s heavy rock. Caixão don’t sound entirely like they’re from the 1970s, and I don’t think they want to, but that influence and production style is at the core of the nine-song/24-minute album — 28 minutes if you add the LP bonus track “Candelabro,” which becomes the longest inclusion at 4:08, beating “Aniversário dos Mágicos” by eight seconds — which benefits from its lo-fi character in letting each song add to the intricacy of the whole.
Arrangement shifts like the aforementioned organ/keys in “Fungos,” “Luz Estranha em Quixadá” and “Talvez” or the acoustic guitar that comes on to lead the way through the sweetly pastoral instrumental “Mar Ciano” are part of that, but Caixão are fluid through changes in methodology as well. To wit, “Fungos,” “Luz Estranha em Quixadá” the prog-swaying “Introspecção,” “Mar Ciano,” the minute-long “Enquanto o Mundo Jorra Sangue,” which plays out like subdued Earth circa ’05 if they’d peppered the nod with doom-bluesy flourishes, and “Candelabro” are instrumental. “Aniversário dos Mágicos” and “Talvez” have lyrics in Portuguese, while “Bloodstains” and “In the Shadow of the Red Sun” are in English, so between these changes in
approach and the corresponding malleability of Caixão‘s songwriting, they end up never quite doing the same thing twice.
Even as “In the Shadow of the Red Sun” and “Aniversário dos Mágicos” play out in succession — both chug-happy rockers tense in their build around classic swing, the latter dipping just a bit toward Uncle Acid in its effects-laced vocal presentation — the language swap provides an opportunity to likewise adjust the patterning of the lines and the rhythms being accented. One doesn’t generally think of a barebones-produced, stripped-down take on ’70s craft as something particularly full or rich — often a low recording volume in comparison to “modern” productions and empty space in the mix is part of the cultish appeal, and I think that’s the case here too — but Entre o Velho Tempo Futuro delivers a satisfying progression amid this variety. The production becomes a unifying factor as much as a choice suited to aesthetic or genre trope.
So not only does Entre o Velho Tempo Futuro not dwell in any single place for too long — or any range of places; again, the record’s under a half-hour — but it keeps an individualized sensibility as it purposefully basks in familiar ideas and draws itself together around disparate intentions. It feels led by the songs, as though founding principal Italo Rodrigo has given the material time to flesh itself out and become what it wants/needs to be, but in part because of the brevity and lack of self-indulgence all around, it avoids the trap of getting lost in any part or song, creating a definitive full-album flow, just in condensed form.
Take the Monday-instead-of-Friday release as a delightful bucking of convention in keeping with the cleverness of the songwriting and execution throughout Entre o Velho Tempo Futuro, and please enjoy the full album stream below, followed by more info from the PR wire:
Caixão, Entre o Velho Tempo Futuro album premiere
Caixão is a Brazilian band formed in 2018 by Italo Rodrigo, who is well-known for playing drums in Echoes of Death and Damn Youth, both Death and Thrash Metal bands based in Ceará.
Describing Caixão’s music in terms of genre is challenging, but their roots are in Proto Metal, combined with influences from Psychedelic and Progressive music of the 1970s.
After various line-up changes and reincarnations, including releases of Splits, EPs, and Singles, they released their first full-length album, “Da Porta ao Sumiço,” in 2020. This album was available in both digital and tape formats and was the first to feature songs with vocals.
The band’s music includes a mix of Portuguese and English lyrics, as well as instrumental tracks.
Entre o Velho Tempo Futuro, the band’s second album, is an invitation to dive into the universe they’ve created. The experience fluctuates between intoxicating shades of green and blue, sometimes intense, sometimes calm, crafting vast soundscapes that pull the listener into another world.
Ítalo says, “This work is rawer, more direct, and less cryptic sonically than its predecessor. We love progressive rock, psychedelic music, and, above all, timeless music from past decades. We try to express our influences, capturing the rawness of the 60s and the heaviness of the 70s, but in a way that remains uniquely ours and carries our own identity.”
The new album features nine tracks, plus a bonus track, Candelabro, previously released as part of a split with the band Abismo.
1. Fungos 02:51
2. Bloodstains 03:24
3. Luz Estranha em Quixadá 02:25
4. Introspecção 01:30
5. In The Shadow of the Red Sun 03:29
6. Aniversário dos Mágicos 04:00
7. Mar ciano 02:25
8. Talvez 03:44
9. Enquanto o Mundo Jorra Sangue 01:01
10. Candelabro (Bonus/Only on Vinyl) 04:08
Band photo by Joakim Fotografia.
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Tags: Brazil, Caixão, Caixão Entre o Velho Tempo Futuro, Ceará, Entre o Velho Tempo Futuro, Glory or Death Records
