Contains the demo "Agony of Souls" as bonus tracks.
Recorded and mixed in July 1992 at 108 Studios. Track 15 Vulcano cover!!
Brazilian death cult Pentacrostic, formed in 1989, emanated an obscure and evil kind of blackened death metal that definitely set them apart from the faster, thrashing bands in the Brazilian scene at the time. Although the band is still active, it is their earlier material that really left their mark for all of the black/death/thrash maniacs obsessed with the early South American hordes. Their debut album The Pain Tears, released in 1992, is for the most part mid to slow paced, but with an unusually bestial atmosphere.
Although the album is filled with bass-y grooves and cavernous vocals, its the ominous and foreboding tone that really makes it what it is. This gives it that rare, evil atmosphere that you can only find in early black/death metal such as Bathory's "The Return......", Mystifier's "Wicca", and Sarcofago's "Satanic Lust' demo. While The Pain Tears doesn't deal with particularly unholy or satanic themes, it's the FEELING that you get when listening to it that really makes this album stand out. The album's intro, Emanation of Grave, gives the listener the perfect preview for what horrors await them in the following nine tracks. The thing that really comes to mind when trying to describing this album is an ancient, decaying corpse rising from a tomb of thick, black mud. It's so evil and archaic, but with a slow sense of dread, almost like a warning. Highlights in the album include the first track, Splendorous Adornment, with a sick mid-paced break around the 1:20 mark, Welcome To The Suffering, with a pummeling groove around the 3:15 mark, Perpetual Darkness, which is just a fucking sick song all-together, and Diseased Souls, a pretty fast paced song that kicks off with an awesome, evil-sounding bark. The albums outro (the title track) brings it all together with a slow instrumental, utilizing both acoustic and electric guitars, fading out, and leaving the listener in a tranquil yet tense state.
I would recommend this album to fans of mid-paced old-school death metal bands like Mortem, or anyone who's just interested in the late 80's- early 90's Brazilian scene that gave birth to so many milestones for black, thrash, and death metal. A bit late to the party in 1992, Pentacrostic still managed to keep that early, bestial feeling that their predecessors made synonymous with South American metal.
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