Now I have probably been snoozing, but a black metal tinged thrash band on I Hate struck me as a little unusual, Columbian or otherwise. Still, here we are. Guerra Total are, in the nicest possible way, a primitive thrash metal band: By this I mean late 80s when Venom, Razor etc were charging up and down fretboards with total abandon with nimble fingers and melodic little runs amongst the carnage. They have a vocal attack like the best/worst of Venom and Darkthrone (snap and snarl recorded in a biscuit tin down the hall) and one gear but plenty of dancing around that full speed ahead setting. Total Guerra are also slightly zombie and H P Lovecraft obsessed amongst the God hating and hard working (fourth full length in as many years and a load of EPs and splits before.)
This is of course all good. And actually so is the album.
I’m not going to claim that there is anything new or innovative here. But what you do get is ten cracking thrash songs characterised by fast riffing with lightning melodic flourishes of notes hanging off the end of every one. Songs like ‘Misanthropist God’, ‘Satan’s Army Of The Apocalypse’, ‘El Color Cayo Del Cielo’ and ‘Nuklear Zombie Division’ kind of sound exactly like they should sound: Fast, spiky, heavy but not made from concrete and resplendent with whiplash and hooks. Really it’s just a great old skool riot in here with breakout lead work, the sparse bit of slower times swiftly swamped by the amphetamine fuelled guitar rush and just a total abandonment of anything since about 1993. It’s just such a rush and such fun that you can’t help but embrace them.
Big tunes, big fun, great thrash. Catch ’em if you can.
(7.5/10 Gizmo)
16/12/2013 at 4:27 pm
Just found this on Spotify. Good old school black-thrash! Nice one 🙂