Conferencia Inferno
Pos-esmeralda
After discussing the latest post-punk treaties and revival waves of synthesizers in their 'Esoteric Bazaar,' after reviewing the gothic documentation submitted for consideration at the 'Ata Saturna' plenary and seeking peer review through a remix album, there are very few doubts that Conferência Inferno are the foremost experts in the dark practices of electric rock in Portugal. It is in this capacity that they once again present their inventive methodology of sound hermeneutics through their 2023 album, 'Pós-Esmeralda,' a collection of songs that aims to expand the emotional possibilities of the Porto ensemble. For this endeavor, Conferência Inferno doesn't just act as messengers but grows into the role of the master of ceremonies, forging a sonic path increasingly their own. The essence of the electric over the organic in bad manners persists, but without definitively defining the tones with which they paint these songs. The darkness remains without prevailing over the increasingly vivid tones of the new harmonic elements. The fundamental dichotomy of their genre unfolds into various tensions, increasingly unique to the Porto trio, allowing them to record how a distressed balance sounds in eight songs. There is a glimpse of macabre joy from the very first seconds, with layers of larger melodies in Raul Mendiratta's synthesizers and José Silva's keyboards in contrast with the vocal and lyrical despair of Francisco Lima. There is a growing energy in the onslaught of the drum machine and the prominent bass tones. And there is always dance in the rhythmic epilepsy that new wave always invoked, with choreographic movements as an alternative to the violence of punk without a prefix, which nevertheless does not manifest any less impetuous, tense, dry, or fast. In short, they are, true to their epithet, infernal.