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THE DAMNNATION
Eyes Of Despair

Shinigami (2025)
Rating: 7/10

The cover art is a bit misleading, because to me Eyes Of Despair has the look of a glossy and very much contemporary heavy metal or hard rock outing. However, The Damnnation is a Brazilian all-female thrash trio that’s been around in one form or another since 2019. In that time, the band has released an EP, Parasite (2020), and a debut full-length album, Way Of Perdition (2022).

The line-up of The Damnnation has changed several times over the years, with vocalist / guitarist Renata Petrelli being the only surviving founding member. She’s now joined by bassist / backing vocalist Fernanda Lessa and drummer Camila Almeida.

With this new album, the São Paulo-based trio keeps every song short at around three-minutes or under. Musically, it’ll be surprisingly aggressive to anyone not familiar with the band, sneering comfortably in the zone between Nervosa and Crypta as Petrelli expands her thorax to emit some ghastly bellows. There’s plenty of melody attached, and the promotional video for ‘Burning Rain’ is a good example of the variances within their thrash framework. It’s not overly polished, but it’s not primitive either, the threesome finding a middle ground that’s no stranger to pinches of melody, and even a few smatterings of cleaner vocals amidst the clinical riffs and percussion.

‘Hatred Genocide’ is pretty much symbolic not just of the sound of The Damnnation but the contemporary thrash template. Thankfully, there’s a bit more punch with these ladies, so instead of coming across as somewhat generic, Eyes Of Despair is more ruthless yet musically engaging. The faster segments pretty much speak for themselves, but some of the slower, almost groove-based grinds (‘Evilness’) boast a real menacing snarl and the riffs twang with a pulverising swagger. It could be argued that some passages veer towards that early classic Machine Head-style, while some of the out and out thrash workouts (‘Battlefield’) just go for the throat.

As I said before, the band is more than capable of being as effective by slowing the pace; ‘Tempus Fugit’ is a chug monster, as is the steady ‘Stoned’. ‘Another Dimension’ employs similar dynamics with its opening before speeding up. The bass provides such a strong spine to this opus, particularly on ‘The Fall’ and the aggressive ‘Solitude’. I suppose if I had to pick a flaw then maybe the lack of speed is something I’d focus on. Eyes Of Despair is far more methodical and mid-tempo the more you listen, the trio still causing bruises but by applying modern aesthetics, and that’s ok.

The Damnnation are not here to provide the comfort of nostalgia. Instead, they get up in your face and demand why you’re in their territory before beating you down, chewing you up and leaving your bones by the roadside.

Neil Arnold

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