Dia De Los Muertos | Satanico Dramatico
by Trevor Portz
Staff Writer
Ironically hailing from the City of Angels, the far from angelic Dia De Los Muertos recently released the follow-up to their highly praised Day of the Dead EP with their first full-length, Satanico Dramatico. While it may not be particularly dramatic, Satanico Dramatico is nevertheless an excellent slice of extreme evil.
Lulling listeners into a false sense of safety with its flamenco-like intro, opener “Las Calaveras Del Terror” quickly erupts into a full metal frenzy. The track features a number of time changes, and mixes black metal intensity with the driving backbone of more traditional metal. Combining this almost progressive structure with both Spanish and English lyrics, the result is a deliciously demonic offering.
The next few tracks deviate a bit from the initial sound, tending to rest more in the thrash (“Plague Mass” and “Meat for the Grinder”) and old school death metal realm (“Sigo Siendo El Rey” and “ Death’s Embrace”). Influences ranging from Testament to Goreguts are present, creating an interesting mix of various extreme metal, erm, extremes.
While the songs are well written and admirably executed, it would have been nice to see the band experiment more with rapid time and style changes, as they did on the opening track, or with more diverse arrangements, as on the unique instrumental closing title track. The diversity offered by these songs indicates that the band is close to developing its individuality, but is still holding a bit too tightly to “comfortable” songs and arrangements forged by those they emulate.
Ultimately, Dia De Los Muertos have delivered a fine piece of extreme metal, especially considering they are a relatively new group. If the band can simply hone their ability to blaze a unique path, the extreme world will be in for a hellish treat.
Genre: Death Metal / Thrash Metal
Band:
Loana dP Valencia (v)
Alfonso Pinzon (d)
Andres Jaramillo (g)
Adrian Villanueva (g)
Alejandro Corredor (b)
Track Listing:
1. Las Calaveras Del Terror
2. Plague Mass
3. Sigo Siendo El Rey
4. Death’s Embrace
5. Meat for the Grinder
6. Here Hell Raises
7. The Fifth Republic
8. Bestia De Las Mil Cabezas
9. Sigo Vivo
10. Satanico Dramatico
Label: Cinismo Records
Website: http://www.myspace.com/quevivanlosmuertos
Hardrock Haven rating: 7.8/10