For my final look at Spanish metal I want to take a Doom Metal band, so let's go looking for recommendations huh? OK, well Google was about as much use as a barber shop on the steps of the Guillotine, so back to my metal encyclopaediac friends I go. Just gonna have to choose one. Let's see... ippy dippy, my space shippy, on a course so true. Round Neptune's moons and Pluto too, the one I choose is .... you!
No it isn't. Man, this is not going well. Three bands chosen, all split up and only one with any sort of an album. I need a current, active band. Let's see. How about these guys? No, close though. Active but with only an EP to their name. Still, maybe ... can I find it? Ah no forget it: it has only four tracks, two of which are Pentagram covers. That's no use to me. Jesus! It's like The Meat Grinder all over again!
Another band, active but no sign of their one album. Sigh. Even better! My search for the next band crashed Spotify! Wonder if they're available on the shark wot grooves? YES! A few albums too. Great. They'll do then.
Baal --- Orthodox --- 2011 (Alone Records)
These guys have an interesting way of focussing their audience apparently. They play their gigs dressed in nondescript black cloaks, and say they don't move onstage. In fact, here's what they say, in their own words: “`We play dressed as penitents of the Sevillian brotherhoods. For us is a way to annul the individual at the moment of playing live music. The only esthetic reference are three motionless figures in black. We force the audience to be centered in that side of our shows...`` (From an interview given to Riff fanzine, and taken from the
Encyclopaedia Metallum website)
Sounds like an interesting idea. Can't see the crowd getting too out of control and throwing beer bottles at three guys who don't even move! Mind you, this album is pretty short, with only five tracks, although one is fourteen minutes long. That seems to be about normal for doom metal, I'm discovering. To my surprise, given that the song titles are all in Spanish, it looks as if Orthodox may sing in English. Of course, this being doom metal that could be more muttered or grunted in English, but at any rate I have translations so I should be able to tell you a little about their songs. The first one though looks to be an instrumental, as there are no lyrics provided. It's called “Alto padre”, which starts off with a big buzzy guitar and then a second one joins with more in the way of melody. One heavy drumbeat is followed about a minute later by another, before there's a roll and the song gets underway.
It's definitely a lot more tuneful than a lot of the doom metal I've heard up to now --- Conan, I'm looking at you! --- and augurs well for the rest of the album, unless this is a curveball I'm being thrown. Sounds like a violin there? None mentioned but you never know; sometimes these things are uncredited. Drums are really rolling now as Borja Diaz Vera gets into his stride, and the guitars are very tasteful from Ricardo Jimenez Gómez. Tune is a little disorganised, almost like a tuneup at the moment, but not unlistenable by any means. Fairly quickly though it's over and it's not a short song, about five minutes and change.
“Taurus” introduces us to the vocals of Marco Serrato Gallado, and I must say on this song at least they come across more like some sort of Native American chant, though still better than many I've heard. The guitars get going as he drops out and they actually ramp up quite well. I honestly can't say too much about the drummer; he seems to be just marking time rather than following any sort of melody, but again maybe that's how it's done in doom metal. Most of it is so slow, it doesn't exactly lend itself to dazzling displays of percussive genius. There's certainly plenty of talent on display at the frets though, as Gómez does his best to liven up proceedings, and mostly succeeds.
Yeah, the vocal remains as a kind of chant, getting a little more intense near the end, but it really detracts from the pretty good music overall being played. Okay, the guitars. “Intromantes” might read as “introduction” but it's just shy of nine minutes long, so no. I would quote some lyrics but I have no idea what these guys are singing about, and think it may be some druidic verse or maybe something from Lovecraft? Lot of names I don't know. Pace has slowed down a little --- yeah, slowed! --- as Gallado continues to chant, can't really call it singing, lending perhaps weight to my belief that this is some sort of pagan prayer. It's ironic that even though he's singing in English I still can't really make out the words!
Wow! Sounded like my PC had got jammed there for about a minute, or like someone was playing a jew's harp incessantly, but no, it was all part of the song. The end of it in fact. Now we're on to “Hanin Ba'al”, which I guess is as close to a title track as we're going to get. I must say, Gallado's vocal here is much better. Much. He stops the droning chanting and gets into a serious groove that actually makes me want to listen to rather than ignore or strain to hear him. Plus I can now make out the lyric. Still no idea what it's about, but wasn't Ba'al some ancient Sumerian god or something ? It's got quite a bouncy feel to it, almost a doom boogie? Sort of an Iommi-like solo breaking out here from Gómez.
Final track then is that monster, with “Ábrase la Tierra” clocking in at a mammoth fourteen minutes, and right away they throw away the almost carefree, fun spirit of the previous track and settle down to some serious dooming. Bringing the pace right back, it's slow, sludgy and plodding but, as Moe once remarked, not without its charm. Gallado's voice is back chanting but somehow it's even further down in the mix now, or maybe it's just that Gómez's guitar is too far to the front. Either way it's a blistering wall of sound, but for a track this long I hope it changes a little over its run.
Well, rather amazingly after a real crazy solo from Gómez that seems to use a lot of feedback or effect pedals of some sort we're already nine minutes in! I feel it's very much overextended though, running well into the twelfth minute, but then looking at the lyric (which appears to be in Latin) there are less words used here than in a Conan song, so I guess they need to fill up the time with music. But then, why fourteen minutes long? The song then ends on some moans and kind of weird guitar effects and then fades out. Slightly disappointing ending, I feel.
TRACKLISTING
1. Alto padre
2. Taurus
3. Intromantes
4. Hanin Ba'al
5. Ábrase la Tierra
Good for what it is, and not half as crushingly slow or (dare I say it) boring as some of the doom metal I've experienced. I wasn't quite sure what to expect but this was not at all half bad. When Marco Gallado raises his game he's an okay singer, but in fairness nothing much more than that, with the undoubted star here being Ricardo Jimenez Gómez. Orthodox have four albums to their name, with a live one released last year, so are obviously still doing okay. Not bad for three guys who stand on the stage and move as little as possible.
So that's Spain done and dusted. I'm sure there are plenty --- and I mean plenty --- of bands we missed out, but when you're skimming though the music of a country with such a rich musical heritage, you're going to end up, well, skimming through it I guess. If I missed out a band you think I should have included, well all I can say is you try doing the next Metal Month! It ain't easy, ya know!
Next week I'm gonna be right at home as I check out the surprisingly vibrant metal scene in my own homeland. Yeah, Paddymetal closes out Metal Month II, starting next Monday! Ya wide or wot?