Opprobrium - turning back the clock to the time of the serpents

Opprobrium

Serpent Temptation (reissue)

High Roller Records

13.10.2023

High Roller Records reissues here the 1988 debut album and the 1996 rerecording of the same album by Incubus, which later changed its name to Opprobrium. Thus, this is two versions of the same album. The band was named Incubus (Louisiana, U.S.) from 1986-1999 and as Opprobrium from 1999 to the present. Their first album was Serpent Temptation (1988) with the Brazilian brothers Francis M. Howard (guitars) and Moyses M. Howard (drums) and U.S.-born Scott Latour (bass, vocals). Their second album is called Beyond the Unknown (1990), at the time it was available through Nuclear Blast and was part of the rising wave of death metal. Compared to the 1988 debut, the 1990 album was an improvement in the quality of the recording and the more muscular, heavier growl now done by guitarist, bassist Francis M. Howard, given that the previous bassist/vocalist Scott Latour was out of the band by 1989.

Then, in 1996 the two brothers recorded their debut album again. The Incubus/Opprobrium sound on both versions of the album is relentless, shredding, unmelodic headbanging metal. There are two main differences between the old and later versions: The first version features Kreator-style vocals and music, raging metal like the Ger-mans' Pleasure to Kill (1986) while the second one has death metal vocals and heaviness. That means that the 1988 recording has those death/thrash/black metal vocals that are furious, but not as deep, guttural and brutal as 90s growls. Perhaps the band felt that their sound was more in line with the newer style of extreme vocals, compared to 80s extreme vocals. In particular, their 1990 sophomore album was recorded at Morrisound Studios in Florida, a studio with brothers Tom and Jim Morris and engineer/producer Scott Burns taking the quality of death metal recordings to professional-level, first-rate recordings, especially with landmark recordings like Death's Leprosy (1988), which showed a clear, professional sound, and in 1989 with very important recordings: Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness, Obituary's Slowly We Rot, Sepultura's Beneath the Remains (recorded in Brazil, but mixed at Morrisound in Florida), and also 1989 with Terrorizer's World Downfall, playing as fast as humanly possible and sounding so clear and professional while doing so, especially for the blasting speeds of Pete Sandoval (Morbid Angel/Terrorizer).

Anyway, in 1990 Incubus released their second album with that Morrisound production. In 1996, with more experience and knowledge, they recorded the 1988 album again, including changing some lyrics/song titles, giving it a 1990s sound. Both are solid recordings, but the 1988 album would be more interesting to die-hard fans of extreme thrash, while the 1996 version should be more impressive to the death metal fanatics.

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