Critic's evaluation
Five years old, the Brazilian quintet Ébrio has finally announced its first album. Entitled Expirar, the debut EP features lyrics entirely in Portuguese, and its tracks are available on various streaming platforms with distribution by Ditto Music.
In the background, as if it were a resonance coming from a distant horizon, the guitar comes out in a harsh tone with slight hints of bitterness. Also with subtle hints of stridency, its resonance is silenced as if sucked up by a vacuum cleaner. A few thousandths of a second later, it becomes a melodramatic unison that receives its last element. Renan Kaly, with his low, sighing timbre reminiscent of Gustavo Bertoni's, adds a sensuality that is out of place, while a mixture of stoner rock and melodic hardcore takes hold. Lancinating and gloomy, Burnout has a well-equalized sound, so that, during the beginning of its second stanza, even the thumps of Ian Max's bass can be heard clearly, delivering a sneaky base. With subtle similarities to the melodic aesthetic of A Cura, a single by CPM 22, Burnout talks about a raging need for inclusion and belonging, issues that consume the essence of the individual, taking all the shine off them. This is how the ethical confusion between the search for acceptance and the consequent falsehood to achieve that goal is found.
With the same effect as Burnout, the guitar appears in the background, far away, like a breath. Its acidity is more pronounced here, to the point that, when played as a duo, it makes Taylor Drumond and Felipe Santos insert a stoner rock that is even more latent than that of the previous track. In this song, Victor Gurgel's drums are even more precise and gritty, building a more rigid rhythmic base, but not one that is difficult to taste. With slightly dirty and sour notes, Inverso maintains a curious melodic linearity until its melodramatic explosion, repeating and reinforcing the recipe of the opening song of Expirar. Under a cleaner vocal, Kaly brings a melancholic-nostalgic storyline, whose character experiences heartache, the pain of mourning. It's about living with a painful overcoming of an unfulfilled love affair.
The surprise comes right at the beginning. There is no sound in the background. What does come through is a direct sonic punch, with the protagonist being a boomy body of light stridency coming from the bass. Mixing details of stoner rock with alternative rock and metal, Longânime has a dark and dramatic vein that, with slyly lacerating touches, talks about coming of age. Not only that. The track also talks about fear in the face of the uncertainty of tomorrow and the antithesis between the desire to grow and the desire to remain in a routine, here showing the insecurity of independence.
Darkness frightens and frightens, but it is darkness that shelters an individual in visible mental confusion. This confusion is nothing more than reliving experiences driven by a sense of guilt and the consequent blind search for mistakes made. And this darkness that embraces her is the very absence of sanity, an experience driven by the lack of a beneficial censorship capable of interceding tragic futures. Alguém? is like a simple message that everything you say has a weight and a consequence in the lives of those who hear it. It's a search for a balance between what should and shouldn't be said.
Dark, lacerating and melodramatic. As a debut, Expirar is a piece of material that already communicates a well-defined and well-constructed sound identity. Throughout its four tracks, the EP shows that Ébrio is a quintet with a dark, lancinating vein.
It deals with themes often found in everyday life, such as the need for inclusion, mourning in love, the insecurity of maturing and the awareness that words have life and can therefore hurt others as much as a physical clash.
To give voice to these thematic questions, Ébrio teamed up with Ricardo Ponte for the mixing. With the professional, Expirar didn't just sound mature, it sounded with a strangely well-equalized auditory linearity. After all, through it the listener, as well as being able to capture the melodic energy and identify the individual contribution of the instruments, realizes the existence of stoner rock, alternative rock and metal.
Rounding off the technical scope is the cover art. Signed by Kaly and Pedro Lenehr, it features an individual on his back, whose clothing gives the idea that he is an evildoer. Urban in character, it still exudes a psychedelic essence that manages to confuse the listener between what is and isn't real. A delirium that fits in well with the meaning of the word 'drunk'.
Released on 11/20/ 2023 in an independent way, Expirar is a dark, lacerating, gloomy and dramatic EP that deals with everyday life from a piercing point of view. Overcoming, pain, insecurity and maturity are issues present in everyone's life, and coping with them are individual results that each person must find in their own way.
