### Breed 77: The evil inside

#### 01/06/13 || Cobal

These guys caught my attention about 5 years ago when they toured Latin America with Mägo de Öz. Back in the day, I found their sound unusual at the very least, although it made all the sense in the world that and act playing modern ethnic metal —whatever the fuck that means, I’m more and more pissed at the ridiculous number of sub-genres these days— joined MdÖ, one of the most experienced celtic-oriented metal bands —yes, that one I approve. Of course, I’d later learn that had everything to do with Breed 77 being signed by Pägana Records, property of former MdÖ‘s manager, Emilio Ortiz.

Regardless how many umlauts were involved, bringing a dyembe, acoustic guitars and mandolines on stage to play a flamenco/gypsy/alternative metal hybrid and do it well seemed a good idea and whatnot. ‘Twas obvious to me they were all pretty proficient and daring musicians, but I gotta say I got particularly hooked by Paul Isola’s vocal style. While metal singers —I’m speaking strictly of the ones that sing— tend to go for the most traditional Dickinson-wannabe type of vocals, this guy rather chooses a more natural lower kind of singing.

“The evil inside” shows clearly the strong bonds these Gibraltarians have with so called alternative metal. Meaning? They do sound modern in spite of their heaviness. They do rely on grooves, some mid-paced riffs and what could be understood as some kind of breakdowns, and the post production sound is as neat and shiny as you could expect from an act like this.

Now, their kind of heaviness ain’t by no means their biggest asset, on the contrary, it’s their ethnic/folk fusion what makes their music different and memorable at all. Being flamenco so guitar-oriented, one could think that fusing it and metal could come out just naturally. Matter of fact, there have been some other attempts of mixing them, although they haven’t been exactly successful at integrating their characteristic elements well. Judge by yourself.

On the other hand, “The evil inside” excels at feeling organic despite the high definition sound it deploys. My guess is their secret lies on balance. No song here feels too folky or falsely exotic for that matter.

Perhaps for the sake of marketability and while their previous works included several Spanish-sung songs, this new work is fully in English, which is good news for those willing to sing along some pretty catchy choruses. It’s true, once again, Isola’s managed to perform so that one really can identify his tone as unique. However, something I didn’t like was the fact the he sounds a bit nasal at times. That’s the problem with contemporary vocal trainings, you know.

I’m too lazy to thoroughly describe the sound of every note, every line and every musician individual performance, but I’ll tell you this: The instrumentalists know their shit. They all play well and the final mix is nothing but fairness to that fact. Of course, there are a couple excellent guitar solos here and there. Discover them by yourself.

I have to admit one of the reasons why I had put off writing this one a couple weeks is that I didn’t quite got into this record at first. I can’t really explain why, I just guess this is some kind of acquired taste of sorts. Sadly, if you consider that I was already somewhat familiar with their previous works and its high level of digestibility, that’s not exactly a great sign, is it?

Anyway, I would recommend this record to anyone who won’t fit the tr00 metalhead category and is interested in metal of the exotic type. To begin with, I suggest you check out the opening track “Drown”, speed metal hinted “Face” and “Motionless”, the longest track in the album. Enjoy.

- Information
- Released: 2013
- Label: Frostbyte
- Website: www.breed77.com
- Band
- Paul Isola: vocals
- Dany Felice: guitars
- Pedro Caparros: guitars
- Stuart Cavilla: bass
- Andre Joyzi: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Drown
- 02. Broken pieces
- 03. Fear
- 04. Looking for myself
- 05. Bring on the rain
- 06. Low
- 07. The evil inside
- 08. Higher
- 09. Face
- 10. Burn city burn
- 11. Motionless