Portugal’s Eye For An Eye Recordings has stood shoulder to shoulder with kindred labels Chicago Research or Manchester’s Natural Sciences for distributing hard-nosed electronic music replete with post-punk grit and heady washes of combative ambience. With a string of acclaimed releases by L.F.T., Boris Barksdale and Cardinal & Nun, label founder Gonçalo Salgado has offered equally bruising cuts of icy EBM and murky techno since 2017, in addition to his DJ Veneno666 and Lake Haze projects, with latest EP Cobra reaching further into the depths of industrial bite.

Like an arcane symbol of black magic or devious spirits, the toxic green sigil that adorns the EP’s stark cover aptly anchors the opening track. ‘Sigílo’ deftly showcases Salgado’s mage-like mastery of wielding sonic abrasion, sculpting and carving bleak roars of noise with caustic beats that swirl together chaotically without ever overpowering its menacing groove. Its propulsive kineticism aided with gelid high-hats and noxious bassline ensures the track is destined for the dancefloor, albeit in the deepest subterranean clubs of Berlin or Lisbon.

The sonic synthesis of ice and machine fuels the frigid title track, a primal strut of electro-punk bathed in piston hiss respiration and raw drum machines that reverberate around its glacial cavern. ‘Cobra’ highlights Salgado’s gift for marrying disparate production styles into a bristling, precarious whole, imbuing brittle, febrile minimal synth with the gutsy heft of industrial techno which effortlessly captures an antagonistic undercurrent across his work.

Conjuring raw EBM that inhabits an arctic realm that few in his league reach, Salgado brandishes his ice-cool industrial noise with an even sharper belligerent streak that makes for a warped techno sound both introspective and urgent. Dark, monstrous and infectious, Cobra is a thrilling new release in the excellent Eye For An Eye canon which exorcises truly cabalistic electronic music.