A couple of observations over the past year have not escaped me and that is the amount of death metal arriving from France and also thrash from Spain. Fully endorsing the latter are this relatively new outfit from Barcelona who are independently releasing their debut album at the tail end of the year. The packaging has a lot of obvious thought put into it, the artwork has that futuristic science-fiction type imagery and the title is possibly going to bring thoughts of early Voivod to mind. There’s even a plectrum and sticker included here. However, we are not Killing Technology, we are Born Into it and in a time when it has overtaken every aspect of life that’s only to be expected.
As the title track broodily takes form with some Metallica sounding melodicism they are not slow at galloping off, the clean vocals of Uri Yerga compliment the rapid-fire velocity pretty well. There’s some neat pinch harmonics giving the track identity and it’s an attention catching opener. Moving into ‘Legacy Of Greed’ with its guitar Slayerisms it’s becoming increasingly evident that this aligns itself far more with the Bay Area sound of thrash than the Teutonic and more extreme hitters. It’s a tried and tested formula here and one that’s fairly difficult to add anything particularly original to. Still if you’re looking for something fast and energetic that’s exactly what you are going to find here. Rather than absolutely bludgeon to death the group gallop along admirably and on ‘Lost Generation’ go for ramming the title of the song down your throats via repetition which frankly I found overkill (not the band) and had me tutting a bit to be honest. Still, there’s a bit of a Soulfly sounding tribalism about it so not all bad and along with the circle pit in the making that is ‘Mr Death’, I’m more than happy to bang and nod head along for the album’s 37-minute duration.
There’s not much more to say here, it’s bangers and thrash, meat and potatoes stodge that has grit and determination. The band could do with forging a bit more identity and are clearly just starting out with enthusiasm and spirit. By the time they move from English to Spanish on ‘La Nº7’ and end things with the traditional lyricised ‘Bella Ciao’ taking us to Italy they have not so much enforced their ‘Music From Nowhere’ mission statement but given us a bit of something from everywhere. Hopefully they will build upon this in the future.
(6/10 Pete Woods)
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