Hoofmark- Blood Red Lullabies (Raging Planet RP352)

This band lead by Nuno Ramos, is described as Portuguese avantgarde dark-metal. Too fully understand and comprehend what the band is after with this musical statement it is very important to read the story that Nuno has conceived which is layed out in the beautiful booklet with the CD.  In the CD digisleeve he also talks about the music and how each track was produced on different days and mostly improvised, not thought too much out but not too little either. Not to overthink things.. Anyway, the CD features 8 tracks and is quite a musical journey and it starts with So Indifferent Blues. A heavy riff and the female vocal, also complimented by a male here and there. Some nice melodic parts and a flute solo, instead of a guitar solo in the first section and then the next vocal section comes followed by a guitar solo.. Really cool and dynamic track. Folktales of the Archdemon starts out as a thrash metal track, super fast and intense and really catches you off guard…. It slows down into a death doom like track eventually only to speed up at the end. A Clapalong is also fast paced to start but more melodic. It is a bit more psychedelic in nature as well and features harmonica, which is quite a cool interesting addition. Gloria a la Tribu (ella está viva) a short instrumental takes things down and features the accordion, some hand drums, acoustic guitar, piano to change the mood completely.  This track goes into Azuiz & Vermelhidão, which brings back the heavy and dramatic music. The vocals can be a bit scary at times as this builds into the longest and most intense track on the album. Naughty Little Men is a really different and track with a totally different singing style. The choir keyboards change the vibe a lot but nice twist folks as the band gets thrashy and freaks out!!! Mito Artificial has some spoken words in Portuguese mixed into the wall of sound and then it just cuts off..  All about our Family ends this 35min record with a slow instrumental one similar to Gloria.. Wow.. what a cool record.. 

https://hoofmark.bandcamp.com/album/blood-red-lullabies 

http://ragingplanet.pt