The first full-length album from Brazilian Doom Metal trio Acidemia is Podridão.

Acidemia formed in Lages, Brazil, in 2015. According to the press release, the band member are Henrique Pereira Soares (bass, vocals), Mateus Varela (guitar), and Thiago Granetto (drums). They first put out an EP titled Extinction in 2018 and then a live album two years after that. The band’s inaugural long-player, Podridão, shows off their steady determined sound on the big stage.

The music is an integration of dead slow heavy doom with occasional and alternating dissonant elements that produces a unique sound. The opening track, “Névoas de Ácido,” seems at first to be a straight-forward doom set-up but before long it ambles off in an unexpected direction that preserves the dread while elevating the musical discourse.

The focus of the compositions is the rhythm framework and vocals, casting strong foundations before heading off unpredictably toward jagged cliffs and fields and valleys in the heavy music landscape. On “Mórbido,” for example, there is an extended section some might receive as jazz. On the title track, in between the crushingly heavy guitar riffs, there are some mad diversions. Surprises become the norm.

The closer is the twenty-one-plus minute endurance test, “Caximbo.” It might be my favorite track because there is so much going on in it. If does, after all, run the equivalent of a full album side. It shows off both the most ordinary and reliable aspects of Acidemia as well as the strangest ones. If you hear no other track, listen to “Caximbo,” but I think the better thing to do is take the entire set in at once. It is a rare find off the beaten path. Recommended.

Podridão is out now. In the US, Bandcamp is the easiest way to get it.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://acidemiaoficial.bandcamp.com/album/podrid-o

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/AcidemiaOficial

Acidemia website, https://www.acidemia.com.br/