Review: Doomsday Hymn – “Mene Tequel Ufarsim”

Doomsday Hymn is a metal band based out of Parana, Brazil, and their first full length album, Mene Tequel Ufarsim, was recently released on Rottweiler Records.

Now, I don’t speak Portuguese. But I don’t need to speak the language to understand that these guys shred.

The band’s website explains, “Doomsday Hymn was designed with a simple–yet ambitious–goal: to bring together styles of metal both traditional and modern in an attempt to renovate a stale sound.” In doing so, Doomsday Hymn draws from 80’s influences, touches on metalcore and throws in heavy doses of thrash.

Mene Tequel Ufarsim is thirteen blistering tracks of Gil Lope’s commanding vocals backed by fiery guitar solos, beefy bass lines, and a full-on percussive battery. This monster combination proves Doomsday Hymn as a force to be reckoned with.

The title tracks rips the album open with an old-school thrashy sound and the following “Poderoso” dips into a quiet bridge that sounds reminiscent of Metallica. “Recomecar” exhibits Jarlisson Jaty as a master behind the drum kit and the guitar soloing in that song is a highlight of the album for me.

“A Reposta” uses a fast vocal attack and later on busts into cleans. Also a mid-song breakdown keeps things fresh. “Alem Da Razao” is another of the more modern-metal sounding tracks. MTU is a non-stop metallic onslaught, from the speed of “Guerrio,” the technicality of “Liberdade,” to the crushing “Destruidor” (Destroyer) – which definitely lives up to its name.

The album closes on another highlight, the track “Inner Fight.” The song opens like a breakdown heavy hardcore song – intensity front to back – it is also one of the only songs with clean vocals. This is a great example of bassist Pavani dominating the low end, as the song turns to a short heavy, sludgy outro.

Heavy, fast, and musically superb – with Mene Tequel Ufarsim, Doomsday Hymn fuses old-school thrash and death with a modern sound, exploding into an apocalyptic metal assault ready to set the world ablaze.