Review by Carl on June 20, 2026.

Despite them blowing the doors wide open for the whole Brazilian high-speed death metal shebang, a style I was a pretty big fanboy of, I've never been all that much into Krisiun. The full-length albums that reached my little shack in the swamp back then all went in one ear, out the other with me, and of the times I saw them live, I can only recall that I have indeed seen a concert by Krisiun, nothing more than that, really.

So it was with only the most minute amount of expectancies that I went into their side of this split LP, and you know what? I actually appreciate this a lot more than what I recall from the rest of the Krisiun output. The brand of high-speed blasting death metal that the band delivers here isn't all that different from the stuff these guys got known for, but sounding way less polished and clean than I seem to remember from their late 90's and early 00's stuff. Here, the music has this muffled and unbalanced sound hanging over it, and I can only admit that this sloppy sound mix exudes exactly that right amount of underground flair that I'm such a sucker for. There's no point in denying that the guitars are forcibly shoved in the background by the overpowering drums and Alex Camargo's Glen Benton-esque growling, with only the crazy-ass divebomb solos managing to pop out of the guitar mush presented, but dammit, this production makes the thundering death metal on offer sound that much more demented. It has the band exuding this utterly unhinged and abrasive atmosphere throughout, and I'm all for it. Granted, at times the feeling will creep up that the band is just playing the same few parts again and again, but come on, this is just great! The flaws found here only add to the charm of this sort of rumbling underground release, and honestly, I can't get enough of it.

Which makes Violent Hate on the B side almost sound twee in comparison. After the rapid grinding death metal attack of Krisiun on the A side, Violent Hate's thrash metal, inspired by bands such as Sacred Reich, late 80's/early 90's Sepultura, Testament and Kreator sounds way more controlled and transparent than what came before, but also less intense. The band's music is presented more clearly and precise as Krisiun's, and also makes more use of sharp thrash metal riffing, while alternating speedy sections with chugging midtempo ones, ensuring more variation to their sound. It has to be said that the overall execution is a few notches upwards here, less sloppy and more based on actual riffing than grinding belt sander guitars, which makes the music easier to follow, but also lessens the impact for me. The compositions are thought out well enough, and are underpinned by a competent drummer nailing every hit and kick in thorough fashion, all helped by a pretty balanced, yet still somewhat cheap production. All in all, it's a fairly decent musical concoction for sure, but unfortunately, it has as its weakest link the vocals of Roberto Souza, a man who sounds kinda forced and pretty anonymous in his effort to imitate his more well-known fellow countryman Max Cavalera, something that does undermine the music on offer a bit.

In the end, it's Krisiun who wins out for me, because I just love their combination of ferocious savagery and charmingly flawed underground spirit. Violent Hate delivers a decent dose of sturdy thrash metal that certainly isn't bad, but sounds too nice and clean-cut to my taste, especially when compared to the death metal whirlwind presented by Krisiun. Which is why it's their part of the deal that makes this split worth the effort of checking out.

Something that also goes for the cover art, by the way.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10