Opening title track “Conquerors of the New World” quickly sets the tone and any expectations of what you’re in for when listening to the second album by this Costa Rican quartet. The technical skill shown by Carlos Venegas is clearly audible as his fingers are running all over his bass keeping time with Eduardo “Tato” Chaves’s manic drum fills and hyper blast beats. Jonathan Sanchéz’s guitars are downtuned and heavy as hell, but he still manages have every riff clearly heard regardless of its blistering pace, while vocalist Sergio Muñoz roars with plenty of conviction and even more power.
The vocals on “Soulless Dead Eyes” go from a deep throaty roar to a little more raspy shout before coming back to roaring over the intense cacophony played by the rest of the band.
There’s no denying the technical proficiency and song writing ability these guys have, add to that the sheer ferocity of their delivery and moments of breakdowns or leads feel almost ballad-like on songs like “Hold Your Crucifix” and “Extermination by Depopulation”.
And if I thought there was a lot going on musically on the previous tracks, then “Feed on Human Flesh” is insane. The number of tempo and riff changes on this the shortest song on the album is phenomenal.
“America Rises” is about their gripe that it would appear that most forget that there is a Central America and only concentrate on the northern and southern hemisphere components.
In some ways there always appears to be a lead playing during “The Chalice” whether it be bass or guitar, with plenty of drums and extra riffage as accompaniment.
The final track “Stabbed to Death” is the longest on the album at nearly 9 minutes and is about as vicious as you could expect with its title, but it also happens to have some of the slowest grooves and breakdowns where the guitars allow the drums to kick up a storm without the need to drown them out.
I must say that I am suitably impressed with this album and the all-out unrelenting attack that it delivers but after listening to it about 20 times in a row it can become a bit of a blur of anger and fury owing to the same reasons that make it good. They have a couple tracks up for you to sample, give it a listen and decide for yourself.
(7/10 Marco Gaminara)
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