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Taurus is a long-running Brazilian Speed/Thrash Metal band formed in 1981 (quite unbelievable, indeed) that has released four albums during their 30+ year career. Fissura is Taurus' most recent studio album, which they self-released back in 2010. The band's previous album, Pornography, came out in 1989, so over 20 long years passed between the two albums. Fissura has now been re-released with four bonus live tracks taken from a 2007 show. Thanks to Mexico's American Line Productions for getting this disc out again, as the band's self-released version was pretty hard to come by due to its limited quantities.

Was this re-release worth the wait? Well, let me say the Portuguese-sung Speed/Thrash Metal on Taurus' Fissura is by no means mind-blowing but it's skillfully performed, relatively catchy and idea-rich stuff. All the experience they gained over the years comes through clearly on Fissura. The guys have kept their sound old school without trying to modernize their musical orientation too much and that's always a good thing. Changing the language from Portuguese to English might help them gain more international ground as many tend to see Portuguese as a kind of weird language for Metal music. The four live tracks that have been added, however, are quite pointless due to poor sound quality. It would have been wiser to release a great quality full-show live concert CD from these Brazilian blokes instead of just adding a little slice of how they might sound live.

Brazil has always managed to impress me with its countless Metal bands and even if Taurus didn't quite manage to blow my mind away with Fissura, it does have a few precious moments.