Artist: Poço Negro / Efermus
Country: Portugal
Label: Perverse Homage
Format: CDR EP
Year: 2026
I’ve written about this before and have made no secret of my opinion on the CD-R format, but I must unfortunately note that the CD-R is slowly gaining ground in the Raw Black Metal scene. It has now become a symptom of the genre’s decline, at least in terms of its popularity. The fact that labels are turning to inferior formats speaks volumes, though not necessarily about the quality of the music. That usually goes in the opposite direction; when a hype fizzles out, the wheat is effectively separated from the chaff: what remains are the best bands who mean business and aren’t just hype-hoppers.
On this budget release, we find two Portuguese bands that have survived the hype – or rather, they only got started when the hype was already on its last legs. Both Poço Negro and Efermus saw their first releases come to light around 2020/2021. Whilst the former was clearly in less of a hurry to take the scene by storm, Efermus certainly did just that and has therefore featured on our pages on several occasions.
Despite the fact that Poço Negro’s debut demo was released by Death’s Radiance, the split CDR with Fennlig by Perverse Homage, and the debut album on vinyl by Altare Productions, I’ve never really given this one-man band much attention. There’s no valid reason for that, it simply slipped through the cracks amidst the sheer volume of releases. But listening back and delving deeper into this split, I’ve come to the conclusion that whilst Poço Negro has nothing to offer in terms of originality, it more than makes up for this with plenty of high-quality material. The ingredients are, in fact, just as you’d expect: a screeching guitar sound, a messy rhythm section and a somewhat oppressive vocal contribution. But it is the charming, unbalanced mix, in which the vocals and the melancholic melody take centre stage, that keeps the whole thing together and firmly anchors it within the established aesthetic of the Raw/Lo-Fi Black Metal genre. The three tracks featured on this split therefore meet the standards that fans of this genre are entitled to expect from the music. It may not be particularly thrilling, but it is certainly above average.
Efermus, on the other hand, benefits from just a little more experience – or a flair for gripping drama and/or a deeper understanding of the genre as a whole. Compared to Poço Negro, Efermus sounds much darker and more menacing. The deep, droning guitars that blend with the noisy production and the blood-curdling screeches sound like Burzum if Varg had gone even further off the rails: plunging into darkness with a boundless psychosis. It therefore fits perfectly within the Portuguese tradition of Raw/Lo-Fi Black Metal and, more than ever before, Efermus positions itself right in the middle between the two giants of their home scene, Black Cilice and Candelabrum. It is as terrifying as it is hypnotic, the musical equivalent of a delirium – or its accompanying soundtrack. And although this usually irritates me, in this instance Efermus benefits from the fact that all three tracks have a slightly different sound and atmosphere. Normally, this would disrupt the natural flow somewhat, but here it heightens the sense of total schizophrenia. Efermus demonstrate that they continue to improve with every release and are gradually establishing themselves as one of Portugal’s finest.
