Gangrena Cerebral —“Brain Gangrene”— is a Dominican death/thrash metal band formed in Santo Domingo in 2006, part of the capital’s extreme-metal underground.

«Goecia Records» and the local scene

«Goecia Records» describes itself as the first independent label in Santo Domingo devoted solely to extreme metal, founded in 2004 by musicians from the local black and death metal scene. In June 2011 the label announced that it was adding Gangrena Cerebral, listed as death/thrash metal, to its roster alongside Vordavoss, and Encyclopaedia Metallum still lists Goecia as the band’s label.

The lineup

The band is built around Camilo Rijo Fulcar, on rhythm guitar and vocals, with Arturo Abreu on lead guitar, Guillermo Armenteros on bass and Mario Luis Ventura on drums; Habib Sucar (bass) and Irwin Abreu (drums) are listed as past members. Rijo Fulcar later studied classical guitar and started a nonprofit music school for people living on the streets of Santo Domingo, a project the newspaper Acento covered in 2016.

«Sadismo Violencia y Perversion»

The band’s only listed release is the EP «Sadismo Violencia y Perversion», released on 4 May 2019 with five tracks: «Psicopata Homicida», «Violado Con Un Taladro», «Demonio Pederasta Con Sotana», «Ruta Del Tormento» and «Hepatocarcinoma». It was recorded in 2018 and 2019 at «Naowa Sonique» and «Ariel Sánchez Studios», engineered by Ariel Sánchez, produced by Guillermo Armenteros and Sánchez, and mastered by Brett Caldas Lima at «Towerstudio». The band describes it as extreme metal from the center of the Caribbean, telling grotesque, sadistic, violent and perverse stories that took place in the Dominican Republic.

Legacy

Encyclopaedia Metallum lists Gangrena Cerebral as active, with the 2019 EP as its only release, and its members have also played in other Santo Domingo bands, among them Metalurgia, Kaostrophobia and Inner Vöid. Its work belongs to the small, locally organized circuit of Dominican extreme metal, far from the merengue and bachata industries.