### Banda De La Muerte: Pulso de una mente maldita

#### 22/05/12 || gk

Every now and then a label or a band will send in something for a review and it’ll actually be pretty good. Doesn’t happen often but it does happen. The only reason I picked Banda de la Muerte and their new album from the list of sent stuff is because their name sounded interesting and the description read “stoner metal/rock from Argentina”. That’s usually good enough for me and I’m quite glad I did pick this up.

The band is led by Xoni who previously spent time with the much ignored stoner rock band Buffalo and here he handles guitars and vocals. The album starts with “Te estás dejando mentir” which has an incredibly catchy chorus and makes me want to sing along even if I don’t know Spanish. The guitars are nice and thick delivering chunky riffs and Xoni’s gravelly vocals are pretty spot on. “Parte de mi Historia” is a little more punkish in flavour but again it’s the catchy vocal lines that get stuck in my head and the chilled out melody at the end is pretty cool. “Tiempo Muerto” starts soft and slow before a driving guitar riff and some pretty cool drumming give the song some momentum and another catchy vocal line from Xoni definitely helps matters here with a soaring chorus. “El sol salió del sur” is a raucous punk rock song that literally comes out of nowhere amidst all the melodic and catchy hard rock and is pretty fucking cool. “Hombre Muerto Caminando” is noisy and bass driven garage rock and works really well showing off a slightly different and more abrasive side to the band. The album closes with the title song which is melodic and reflective with a steady bass thump serving as rhythm while the guitars float around backing Xoni’s vocals very nicely.

I have to say that the production on this album is pretty great. The guitars sound just dirty enough to always have some bite, the drums sound perfectly mixed and the bass sound is pretty fucking great. Also, Xoni’s ability to come up with a string of catchy choruses really works in the bands favour.

The band mixes a variety of influences on “Pulso de una mente maldita”. There’s loads of catchy hard rock right through this album but it’s tempered with some bits of punk rock, Melvins like groove and great melodic guitar sections. It feels like the South American stoner scene just continues to put out great bands and while Banda de la Muerte is not quite up to the standards of countrymen Los Natas, at their finest they combine the effortless catchiness of Los Natas with the loud and abrasive garage rock of Peru’s La Ira De Dios. It’s a solid combination and works quite well.

If you like the whole stoner rock/metal scene then chances are you’ll find something to like here. It’s not quite the combination of Melvins sludge and Black Flag attitude their label is advertising it as but judged on its own merits, it’s a solid and catchy album with some really good songs.

- Information
- Released: 2012
- Label: Zonda Records
- Website: Banda de la Muerte Bandcamp
- Band
- Xoni: vocals, guitars
- Seba Muerte: guitars
- Nico Foresi: bass
- Guillermo Gomez: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Te estás dejando mentir
- 02. Parte de mi historia
- 03. El miedo
- 04. Tiempo muerto
- 05. El sol salió del sur
- 06. Espiritu en paz
- 07. En contra del destino
- 08. Hombre muerto caminando
- 09. Pulso de una mente maldita