Machetazo "Sinfonias del Terror Ciego" CD
[Razorback]
I've been a fan of these Spanish grinders' work over the years, but I have to say, I'm not really feeling this one. They're not stagnating per se, this material spices things up with some raging basslines and a good variety of tempos, not to mention a wider scope of musical influences, but I'm not that wild on the recording, and the songwriting simply isn't very powerful. Don't get me wrong, I know this stuff is supposed to sound raw, and I'm fine with that, but the guitar tone isn't heavy enough on this disc at all. The bass tone is pretty good and makes itself heard, and I can live with the drums and the vocals as well, even though both sound slightly flat at times, but... the guitars are the real killer for me. They don't sound bad, but a more aggressive level of distortion would make a huge difference, because right now the guitars can get lost during the faster blasts, and the mix feels somewhat empty on occasion. Writing-wise my biggest complaint is that the riffs, well... the riffs aren't that good. The speedy picking doesn't harness much energy, and most of the slower breaks neglect to add force, so it's kind of a bland listen since a lot of it sounds the same, even if they are branching out here and there. And you can still pick up elements of early Carcass with some of the song structures, but there are very few tracks that remain memorable or stand out above the rest. "Niebla Fúnebre" is slower and more dissonant at the start, with a midrange vocal attack that definitely sounds more intense than the average barked growling; and "Monasterio de Berzano" contrasts tempos fairly well, but there simply aren't many songs that I wholly enjoy with this one. "Sepulcros Malditos" opens with a killer rhythm section groove and has more of a chugging attack, but once the speed picks up it's another boring slab of fairly typical grind in the classic sense - not bad, but not interesting either. This is also a track where the intro sample proves useless, as it kills the momentum and simply wastes space. I actually feel the same about almost every sample used herein, as none of them seem particularly useful to me. "La Noche de Las Gaviotas" is the most surprising track, carrying on at a pulsing slow pace and even using reverberated melodic leads and some clean guitars over the pounding bass and sparse percussion; while "Cripta" hints at some promising dissonant chords. "Ritual de Resurrección" is probably my favorite of the more traditional grindcore cuts, though most of the songs hit on those types of writing sensibilities to varying degrees of success. The layout is done in black and white and looks pretty good. The band photos are cool, the cover art folds out into a nice four-panel mini poster kind of thing, etc. No lyrics are included and all of the liner notes are in Spanish, but I have no quarrels with that on this one. Like many Razorback releases there are some jumbled elements to the visual compositions here, but things are certainly improving to reach a stronger level of quality there. And if nothing else, I have to credit the band since their performances are tight and the bassist is a fucking madman - whose playing truly impresses on several occasions. But I've still got to recommend a heavier sound, and more importantly, more energy to the songwriting. That's the key setback here: The songs just don't stick with you. Maybe they'll recapture that vibe next time... this is the first instance where I've really felt this way about Machetazo. (5/10)
Running time - 31:44, Tracks: 15
[Notable tracks: Niebla Fúnebre, Cripta, Ritual de Resurrección]
Razorback Records - http://www.razorbackrecords.com

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