Opprobrium - Serpent Temptation - The Alternate Version 1996 MC

In 1982, when teenage brothers Moyses and Francis M. Howard moved from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to New Orleans, Louisiana with their parents, they could not know that they would soon be taken by the nascent metal underground in the US and become forerunners themselves – but that is just what happened when they formed Incubus (now known as Opprobrium) together with bass player/singer Scot W. Latour in 1986.

After the release of a four-song demo tape in 1987, the trio released their debut full-length Serpent Temptation in 1988, a pioneering milestone in several respects. With Moyses´ blastbeat drumming, which was still a rarity in those days apart from hardly more than a handful of other acts using it in the same uncompromising way, Francis´ fast-paced riffing an Latour´s furious snarl, Serpent Temptation existed on the verge between thrash and early death metal. Balancing chaos and control just perfectly, these tunes were meant to become timeless classics right from the start.

This first effort got them a record deal with the then-revolutionary label German Nuclear Blast, which also released both its successors Beyond the Unknown (1990) and Discerning Forces (2000, by then under the name Opprobrium) as well as, in 1996, a new recording of Serpent Temptation: With Latour out of the band, Francis also took over vocal duties and re-worked the lyrics in addition of also re-recording the bass for this alternate version.