The dispersion of extreme music throughout virtually every cultural strata on the planet has rendered the proliferation of female-fronted outfits refreshingly ordinary, so when an all-female act like Brazil’s Nervosa come along, it is thankfully their music and not their gender that provides the more interesting discussion.
Tapping into the nihilistic velocity of Bay Area thrash circa ’86, this São Paolo-based three-piece have faithfully worshipped at the altars of Hanneman and Cavalera and their debut album offers a riotous celebration of those halcyon days of boozing, fighting and shredding.
Polished musicianship is here in spades, with the real treat being drummer Pitchu Ferraz, who blows through every track with the inhuman fury of an eight-armed polyrhythmic tornado.
That said, not a lot of new ground is being cracked here and while cuts like Justice Be Done and Death deliver truly scorching beatdowns, it is difficult to escape the sense that in reverentially channelling the spirit of their influences, they’ve erred too far on the side of playing it safe.
