Here's a great pairing of two bands from different sides of the planet, but playing a similar style of music. It's a potent mix of Ratos De Porao-styled crusty fury with the speed and aggression of Hirax-style thrash. Both bands include a liberal dose of Discharge.Forca Macabra are from Finland. They are such rabid fans of the Brazilian HC scene that they sing in Portuguese. They play thrash in the Finnish style: fast and heavy, but you can clearly hear the Brazilian influence. In fact, I think their songs are a perfect blend of metal and hardcore, like Riistetyt and Sepultura in a blender. The recording is thick and powerful and really complements their thrashing riffs. Even though there's a lyric sheet, you don't really need it. Taurus has a clear shouting style like Anti-Cimex or Entombed.The Armagedom tracks were recorded in 1989, so the sound quality is a little less clear than the Forca Macabra tracks. They make up for that with some tight riffs played at a much faster pace and with a higher metal content. They were definitely influenced by old Slayer or Destruction. The singer even throws in some Tom Araya-style high notes in a couple of songs. The drums stick to a nice D-beat throughout most of their songs, which leaves plenty of room for their guitarist to go crazy with odd riffs and schizophrenic solos.Armagedom has a few more releases that are also worth checking out. Forca Macabra is a much more prolific band, though a lot of their material was released only on vinyl. If you're lucky, you can find some of their Brazilian CDs which compile their rarer output. This CD is definitely a good place to start. Hopefully extreme music has come full circle enough that today's fans can recognize yesterday's brilliance.