Work has me under the gun so I’m going to cheat a bit to talk about the wonder of progressive/avant-garde/death metal hybrid machine Papangu, whose sophomore album Lampião Rei takes an abrupt left turn from their already weird and wonderful debut Holoceno in 2021. The outfit, hailing from João Pessoa, Brazil are brazen and utterly heartless when it comes to smashing genres together, juxtaposing jazz breaks next to death metal next to traditional Brazilian rhythms and straight up 70s prog from the Canterbury scene. It’s a case of had they gone the full prog route I would have been happy; had they stayed completely metal I would have been just as happy. But in this mixed incarnation I’m bowled over.

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