Review: Antropoceno – No Ritmo da Terra
Style: Post-rock, afoxé, art rock, MPB, neo-psychedelia, avant-garde metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Parannoul, Fishmans, Turquoisedeath, Os Mutantes, Mestre Ambrósio
Country: Brazil
Release date: 16 March 2026
We often talk about music’s emotional weight around here, but there is a powerful political aspect to sound. Beyond the surface-level analysis of lyrics being used in propaganda, nationalism, or protest, the music itself can be weaponized. For instance, the happy-go-lucky jingles pharmaceutical ads play during their reading of side effects are slightly nefarious. In a much more evil use of music, the US government used music as torture in the war on terror, psychologically breaking down one prisoner by using his belief that the Qaran forbade listening to music—the guards also played extremely loud music during prayer time. And music can reflect power relations; the entire history of music throughout colonialism is fascinating.
Lua Viana, the sole woman behind Antropoceno, plays with these postcolonial dynamics on No Ritmo da Terra, the second album in a planned trilogy1 inspired by the philosophical work of Ailton Krenak2. Attempting to invert the residual hegemony of postcolonial music, Viana uses her music primarily to place traditional Brazilian and indigenous instruments at the forefront of her sound, as well as to engage with the natural world through Amazonian field recordings from the Carajás National Forest. I can look past the irony that this act of counterresistance still operates within a Western formal framework—post-rock/dream pop/experimental metal—since globalization has already occurred, and the world is a syncretic place marred by colonialism. Placing a strong emphasis on tradition to subordinate Western norms to a uniquely Brazilian sound is still a display of resistance that doesn’t completely disregard the previous hundred and fifty years of musical tradition.
Although Viana takes a variety of influences from across time and place, No Ritmo da Terra is focused and cohesive. Driven forward by musicalized birdsong and a relentless blend of percussion3 throughout the record, individual tracks incorporate a wider variety of textures and song structures: “Futuro Ancestral” is perhaps the most representative of the record’s sonic palette. Black metal harsh vocals interact with chants in Old Tupi, an indigenous language from Southeast Brazil; a jungly aesthetic infiltrates the pores of the song with a variety of avian calls occupying the sonic space between the synths and percussion; and the track is nonlinear, despite a relatively brief six-minute runtime, allowing for a freeflowing stream of instrumentation to ebb and flow. The eleven-minute slow-burning “Xe Anama (Coração no Ritmo da Terra)” builds in classic post-rock fashion with mildly distorted guitars hyperventilating in aching tremolos, while a flute plays the main melody, interweaving between spoken word clips. Harsh vocals, metal riffs, and blast beats, reminiscent of Kaatayra, comprise the main sections of “Pe Rembi’urama,” while effervescent synths turn the track into a maximalist explosion of sound—the melodic two-note birdsong motif is the vital heart of the song.
Perhaps the strongest instance of Antropoceno reflecting the multicultural landscape that is Brazil is “Ìranti Odé,” blending classic dream pop aesthetics, folk percussion, and the guest vocals of Pai Viny—he is an Ogan (religious leader of the Candomblé religion). Vinay’s hypnotic, strong-voiced chants are sung in liturgical Yoruba, as the Candomblé religion draws mainly from West African religious practices with elements of Roman Catholicism and indigenous Brazilian beliefs mixed in. Just as Antropoceno seeks to re-Brazilanize various sorts of music on the record, there is a major movement to re-Africanize Candomblé, removing the Catholic influence that was forced upon the Yoruba people during Portugal’s colonial regime.
Unfortunately, the biggest issue with Natureza Morta hasn’t been addressed: Viana comes out of the online shoegaze tradition, and sometimes her clean vocals are rather unrefined—nasally and raw in tone—especially on “Ayuba Oxum,” most prominently when her voice jumps big intervals. Thankfully, the melody her voice carries in that track is still beautiful, and the synths, bells, and trem picks coalesce in a grandiose intensity by the end of the track. The other issue is that for all the inspirational philosophy, some of the musical elements may be a bit on the nose; I don’t necessarily see a way around it, but the Amazonian field recordings might verge on cliché for some listeners. For a record that seeks to tear down stereotypes, Viana relies on them far too much to craft something that to a Western audience screams “stereotypically Brazilian music”; but despite a bit of self-contradictory philosophy, No Ritmo da Terra is a wonderfully performed album that draws influences from a huge range of musical traditions, while openly discussing challenging, important philosophical questions.
Recommended tracks: Pe Rembi’urama, Oyá Dewo, Ìranti Odé, Futuro Ancestral
You may also like: Kaatayra, Bríi, Rasha, Sonhos Tomam Conta, Samlrc, Papangu, Nishaiar (Nahaxar album), Ron Nagorcka
Final verdict: 7.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Instagram
Label: Flowing Downward
Antropoceno is:
– Lua Viana (everything)
With guests:
– Gabi d’Oyá (vocals, track 4)
– Pai Viny (vocals, track 5)
- Read my review of the first installment here. ↩︎
- His thesis is that Europe’s philosophical influence on the world has created a disconnect between humans and the natural world; we ought to see ourselves not as above the earth but as a small part of a larger ecosystem. His viewpoint is anti-capitalist and anti-colonial. I highly recommend looking into the discipline of ecological economics if you want to learn more. ↩︎
- Including atabaque, agogô, caxixi, pandeiro, and tamborim ↩︎
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