Rating: 7.7

Country: Brazil

Release Date: 2004

Record Label: Mighty Music

Track list:
1. Damned Knowledge [MP3]
2. I Reign
3. Conceived By Inhuman Blood
4. Hate Earth
5. Dying End
6. Ignis Victory
7. Domination Is My Name
8. Crucify Again
9. You Have Lost
10. Bleeding Mortal Laments
11. Fear The Truth

Total playing time: 43:16

Band Website: Nephasth

Nephasth - Conceived By Inhuman Blood

Fabio Lentino - Bass, Vocals
Marcos Moura - Guitar
Rafael Barros - Guitar
Mauricio Weimar - Drums

Nephasth's debut 'Immortal Unholy Triumph' along with Abhorrence's 'Evoking The Abomination' and Rebaelliun's 'Burn The Promised Land' were the standouts from the mini-Brazilian death metal explosion that occurred a few years back. They even surpassed the over hyped Krisiun albums that were released during that period. Nephasth happened to be the freshest and the most dynamic of that lot. They played at the same fierce speed and with the same aggression yet didn't sound as monotonous and tedious as their country mates. It was their brilliant application and timing that all the difference. Three years later they came back with their second offering titled 'Conceived By Inhuman Blood' and by this time plenty of such Brazilian bands had surfaced, some good, some horrible, but all of them playing in the SAME fast and brutal style. Needless to say, the scene deteriorated rapidly as a result. Now it was Nephasth's turn and people didn't need the same speed or brutality, but good song writing, something which we've come to expect from this band. Naturally, the expectations were high.

And it's good. The album has substance and the song writing is still solid. If you are familiar with Brazilian death metal then you already know what the music here would sound like, but still if I had do describe the music I would say they sound as a cross between Krisiun (expectedly) and Rebaelliun with influences from Morbid Angel. It's driven and intense with build ups for some superb thrashing parts often reminiscent of Malevolent Creation. The band proves its capability to write some absolutely deadly riffs and they still provide with more variations than most of their counterparts. I was hoping to hear some sweet leads like some of the ones on their first album but sadly, here they just sound like stripped down version of the ones flaunted by Rebaelliun, but it's decent nevertheless.

Like the band name oddly seems to imply, the music is “phasth” and it remains that way throughout the course of the album except for the slow Nile-influenced instrumental in the middle ending with a flurry of leads screaming for attention. Sounds pretty familiar doesn't it? From what I could gather, this “flurry of leads” trend in death metal was originally started by Vader on 'The Ultimate Incantation' and has since been religiously adopted by the Brazilian deathsters, for instance- Krisiun did that in 'Black Force Domain', Abhorrence did that in 'Evoking The Abomination', Rebaelliun did that in 'Burn The Promised Land', Nephasth did that in their debut and still, yet again in this album! It is safe to say that it has become some kind of a mandatory tradition without which the average Brazilian death metal album is most certainly incomplete.

The music unfortunately is subdued and numbed by the production. No, it's not only the drums like the obnoxious sounding ones you've been used to hearing on those Krisiun albums, its the whole mix which is just…blunt. There is no room given for the instruments to breathe and because of that they all sound muffled. It's as if fatal stabbing attempts are being made but with a dildo. You know it's just not effective enough. They have also brutally deserted their nice clear guitar tone on their debut for a more Rebaelliun-esque sound, only not as shredding and the vocals are so low it sounds as if the vocalist was recording from the studio's basement. Here he sounds like the ferocious Rebaelliun vocalist Paul but castrated. Even the drums are lower than desired but I must say that Mauricio's drumming however is spot on. He's probably the most versatile Brazilian death metal drummer I've heard; not only is he fast, but he is also capable of playing more than one beat during the entire course of the album. Not just that, he also appears to mentally sane and doesn't suffer from illusions of running some life altering marathon on double bass pedals whilst drumming. You also get an opportunity to hear him show off his skills in the short drum solo at the beginning of "Hate Earth", good stuff.

There is no doubt that this album is good but it falls short of the quality and the greatness of their debut which had all the right elements in the right proportion and was also supported by an unblemished production. It sounded very fresh whereas this one doesn't. Anyway, 'Conceived By Inhuman Blood' is still good enough for mad fans of Brazilian death metal to urinate all over themselves in excitement.

May 10th, 2005