Chemicide - Common Sense (2022)

Country: Costa Rica
Style: Thrash Metal
Rating: 8/10
Release Date: 15 Mar 2022
Sites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Metal Archives | YouTube

Here's a thrash album with a vicious edge indeed, courtesy of Chemicide who have been perfecting their craft in San José, Costa Rica for a decade and a half, beginning out as Conquerer in 2006 and changing name to Chemicide in 2008. This is their fourth album, a year late for their schedule thus far of one every odd year, and it's a real peach. It's fast thrash, barrelling along at a strong rate of knots, with fantastic chugging and excellent solos. The vocals are reliable, even if nothing new and it's notable how the production makes them fight for attention, because the instruments are high in the mix. And that guitar sound!

Chemicide are a quartet with two guitarists, Sebastián and Frankie, though I don't know which one handles the lead or whether they swap lead duties. Frankie also splits the vocal duties with bassist Palo and, again, I don't know who sings lead or whether they swap. Both the vocals and guitars are highly consistent though, with nothing ever seeming patchwork. In fact, they have to be one of the tightest guitar pairings I've heard and both guitarists play like their lives depend on it.

Self-Destruct is a fantastic opener that gets down to business immediately, highlighting with real emphasis how Chemicide are not one of those thrash bands content to chug along at mid-pace and maybe even slower than that. They blister out of the gate and, while they do chug magnificently, it is never for an entire song. They sprint for a while, occasionally shift down a gear midway through a song for a mosh part and then ramp up back up to sprint again. This works really well, especially on the notably patient section late in Strike as One, which is otherwise as frantic as this album has to offer. The song does try to get away from the band, but they manage to keep it in check.

Lunar Entity is the first obvious highlight for me, with Common Sense following right on its heels as the second, especially spending its first minute and a half as an instrumental. There's a third as well, even with only eight tracks on offer, and that's False Democracy, kicking off the second side. Nothing else lets the album down though and I happily spent a whole Saturday morning becoming seriously energised listening to this album over and over again.

It's a very strong album from the good old fashioned "nothing like a good thrash to clean you out" standpoint, in the vicious early Exodus style but maybe a little more polished with its 21st century production values. My only complaint there isn't really a complaint, because there are a couple of points, like when Strike as One and Disposable kick into gear, where the production seems to have lost the battle, the songs sounding like there's a distant explosion behind them, but it may just be for effect, because otherwise it's solid as a rock, with the bass admirable clear throughout.

What elevates it above other very strong thrash albums are the way that Chemicide know exactly how to start and stop songs. I wasn't sold on the ending to Self-Destruct and Lunar Eternity fades out, but there are a whole lot of really good endings here, where a song reaches a natural end to stop on a dime. At the other end of songs, there are no long intros here, unless we count the long instrumental section on the title track, which I wouldn't, but the songs delineate themselves with individual openings. The most notable is the guitar tone as Color Blind begins, but it's clear that a live set wouldn't surprise the audience at any point. Chemicide would only need to play a couple of bars and the die hard audience would know exactly what song is starting.

The best thrash albums I've heard lately have been from established North American bands, something I have to admit to being surprised by. Last year's releases from Flotsam and Jetsam and Exodus are absolute killers, for instance. South America, especially Brazil, has been a hotbed for good thrash though and I'm really happy to see that quality moving up to Central America. I wonder what sort of scene is going on in Costa Rica but I'd love to hear more.

Goat Rider - Tsundere (2021)

Country: Costa Rica
Style: Black/Speed Metal
Rating: 7/10
Release Date: 29 May 2021
Sites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Metal Archives | YouTube

I found this as a speed metal album, but it's really a cross between black and speed metal with a punk attitude, kind of like Midnight, who were quite the surprise when I saw them supporting Kreator and Obituary. They're an absolute blitzkrieg on stage and I'm guessing that Goat Rider, who hail from San José in Costa Rica, follow suit. They just don't mess around here, unless we count the intro as messing around. There are ten tracks proper here and there are as many under three minutes as over. There's a cover of a Toxic Holocaust song on their debut album, High Speed from Hell, and that fits too.

While this band are from South America, they clearly have a fondness for Japan. The album's title is a reference to a type of anime character who has two distinct moods: one cold and aloof, the other hot and temperamental. The intro is full of Japanese instruments, like kotos and shakuhachi flutes. There are songs here called Katana, Kamikaze and Hentai, not to forget Harakiri at WWII, all of which cover quintessentially Japanese topics. There are plenty of little snippets that I presume are samples which serve to underline this connection too, as does the stylistic cover art.

Musically, they're not Japanese in the slightest. The roots here are initially English, starting with the mighty Motörhead, an influence that's especially obvious on songs like Necromancer and Harakiri at WWII, the latter of which plays out rather like Orgasmatron for quite a while. Following as an obvious influence is Venom, for reasons of speed and harsh vocal delivery but also because not everything here is speed. Most of these songs don't leave the gate at 100mph and not all of them get up to that, though many do. Goat Rider would have been seen as fast and edgy had they also recorded for Neat Records in the early eighties but they're not as fast and edgy today, given what's happened in the decades between. A song like Flagellator ends up very much in Venom territory.

The eagle eyed would notice that both the bands cited above were, at least at their most influential, power trios, as are Toxic Holocaust and, on stage, Midnight. Goat Rider aren't, because they number four members, but they sound like they are because the music is generated from one guitar, one bass and one set of drums. The only way they're bucking that trend is that vocalist Anthony Umaña, or his musical nom de plume of Cvnt Deströyer, is only the vocalist and he doesn't do double duty on bass. A power trio in this genre has a very recognisable sound, with the bass as obvious as the lead guitar, as often it serves the role of rhythm guitar. A band like Bütcher, who would otherwise work as a further comparison, sound deeper and denser because they have two guitarists.

My favourite songs here are found at the heart of the album. With the Japanese connection firmly in place through the intro and tracks like Fire Rain and Katana, they show just how well they can blister on Satanic Speed Samurai, which title is a really good description of the band on this album, and just how well they can maintain that energy level while not playing incredibly fast throughout on Too Fast for You, which certainly spends much of its time very fast indeed but also slows down very effectively too for a late section. I also love the late pause, as the band wait for a single cymbal note before they enter the final stretch and dive for the line.

With the understanding that this is what it is, and it's not trying to be some higher form of art, there really isn't much negative to say. I'd have liked a thicker sound but I wouldn't suggest the production is flawed; it's just a consequence of being a power trio (plus vocalist). I'd have liked a few more songs too, because this runs a short 33 minutes, but it's kind of appropriate for the musical style. Certainly, we don't need hour long black/speed metal albums. If I want more, I should splash out for the band's debut album, which makes this one look long, given that it wraps up in under 25 minutes.

Of course, with albums running this short, Goat Rider really don't have much excuse not to knock out a fresh one every year for us to tune back in and exercise our necks for a while. This particular combo of genres is a relatively limited one stylistically, even if I really dig it, and Goat Rider have found a clever way of keeping it interesting, with samurai slashing the swords and anime girls crying out phrases still faster than the music. I'd love to see these guys live on stage too. It's only a three thousand mile drive with four borders to cross. During COVID. Yeah, maybe YouTube for now.

Depleted - Throes (2020)

Country: Costa Rica
Style: Melodic Death Metal
Rating: 7/10
Release Date: 11 Sep 2020
Sites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Metal Archives | Official Website | YouTube

It's fair to say that I enjoyed this album a lot more than I expected to, but then Costa Rica isn't known for its melodic death metal. Perhaps that's why this sounds different to the usual bands from Sweden or wider Europe.

For one thing, it's really fast stuff, Randy Arias consistently setting a serious pace for his bandmates to follow. There are quite a few points where this almost feels like a thrash album. Except, of course, the vocals of Ariel González are rougher and deeper, though he never seems quite sure if he wants to sing for a death metal band or a hardcore band. I tend to dislike the shouty style, but this hybrid of death growls and hardcore shouts works for me. It's urgent and angry and it matches the urgency and anger of those drums.

While González and Arias are being all urgent and angry, there are twin guitars behind them being a lot slower, as if Mario Muñoz and Braulio Cordero want to play doom/death but can't quite resist the pace. There are points, especially on From Deceased to Equinox, where this could be a Paradise Lost album played at double speed. Or more.

It's the tone that really sold me though, because it's very rough and no nonsense, almost industrial. The lead guitar isn't the buzzsaw I'm used to in thrash, slicing through anything in its path, but it's sometimes like an industrial sander, grinding away at whatever's placed in front of it and preparing to veer out of control. It lets loose and wails on The Bereft Ones, but not remotely like the emotion of a Robin Trower solo; this is more like a banshee realising that she's been suckered into a trap. The rhythm guitar late in And Throes Were Embraced by Silence sounds like it's cutting through steel.

That tone is in the guitars most but it's there in the rhythm section too. Arias's beats come in such a flurry at points that, if the guitars want to play doom/death, Arias wants to play black metal. Check out the beginning of From Deceased to Equinox or the end of The Bereft Ones to experience just how fast he moves. He's relentlessly on the beat, but I could imagine him flailing around in the studio not just beating seven circles of Hell out of his kit but the walls too and the floor and anything plastic or metal that someone left in reach. The result, surely deepened by Amelisa Matamoros's bass, sounds dangerous and raw.

Throes isn't a long album, featuring only six songs (plus a minute long intro) that are over and done with far too quickly. Only one of them makes it past five minutes, meaning that this wraps up sooner than Reign in Blood. That's soon. I didn't want this to end but, when it did, I realised that I probably hadn't breathed much for the duration and ought to catch up.

Until this, the only Costa Rican band I'd reviewed at Apocalypse Later were Abäk, who are a folk rock/metal band with an expansive line-up and diverse cultural roots in their sound. Depleted take a wildly different approach, but with as much success. This is melodic death with a black metal rocket up its arse and a filthy hardcore attitude, but it's grounded by some delightfully abrasive guitarwork that's constantly inventive.

I like this a lot. Sadly, given that Depleted were only founded in 2018 and fleshed out their current line-up last year, this is their debut album and the only releases they've made prior to it were three singles, which return to comprise the first half of Throes. But hey, I can just play this for the fifth time before I need to breathe again, right?

Abäk - El canto de las Lapas (2020)

Country: Costa Rica
Style: Folk Rock/Metal
Rating: 7/10
Release Date: 16 Mar 2020
Sites: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Official Website | Twitter | YouTube

If Külmking resisted their folk metal leanings, Abäk embrace them, defining themselves and their goals as "a cultural rock project that seeks to spread different branches of Costa Rican culture through music." Their songs stem from the myths, history and literature of their native country. I'd go with folk rock rather than folk metal because, while there are certainly places where the guitars speed up and rock out, they're always kept low in the mix and the result feels like rock music that gets more energetic when it feels the need. And whatever we call it, I like it a lot.

Clearly Abäk aren't a small band, photos suggesting ten members, and that's before we factor in four guest musicians, including Jose Macheño from the Spanish folk metal band Lándevir. Sadly, I'm unable to find anything to tell me who's in Abäk and what they do in the band. So let's just say that there are a few vocalists, all of whom sing clean, whether rough male or crystal clear female. There are at least two guitars, along with a bass and various drums. There are certainly flutes involved and a fiddle too.

The opener, La Bruja Zárate, starts off as the band mean to go on. There's a minute and a half of pure folk: acoustic guitars, a hand drum and vocals. At that point, it leaps into eighties heavy metal, continuing with clean vocals but now with a drumkit and electric guitars clearly influenced by early Iron Maiden. Even the sound fits because the guitar is much lower in the mix than a metal band would place it nowadays. By the three minute mark, though, the metal calms down a little and a soaring female voice duets with the guitar, not singing words but just sounds à la Yma Sumac. She eventually sings words but with a folk chant behind her and we're back to the beginning.

I was sold on the album just from that one song, but there are six more and they continue to be interesting. Iriria adds flutes and a punk vibe, without losing the metal guitar solo in the middle. This is a wild mix but one that works really well. It's folk, it's rock, it's punk, it's metal. And the rest of the album continues to mix these genres up in different combinations, as if everyone does it and it's the most natural thing in the world. This is probably my favourite song on the album.

Luna Roja is a folk duet between emotional male and female voices. Guerrera features an oddly strident female vocal, given the others we've heard thus far. Santa Rosa is a metal song built on a military beat. Conquistador gives the bass player plenty of time in the spotlight. The title track brings in the fiddle, which adds an elegance to proceedings that's echoed by the lead male voice. It's also the longest of the tracks by far, running almost ten minutes, and it grows perhaps the most, hauling us along quite the journey before wrapping up with flutes and birdsong.

I'd love to know more about Abäk. Is this some sort of musical collective? I can't imagine that all ten band members appear on every track, especially as the vocals seem to vary considerably across the album. I believe this is the second studio release for them, following a concept album, El Tambor de Sibö in 2018, which I'm eager to check out now. Whoever does what and how often, I enjoyed this a great deal, as I have most of the South American folk metal that I've found of late, bands like Curare, Herteitr and Tuatha de Danann.