Sierpes
Visiones Caóticas

One of the great things about writing for Hallowed and writing about all kinds of rock and metal music is that one gets to hear many different kinds of music from all over the world, some great and some not so great and most somewhere in between. Today chance has fallen on a band called Sierpes from Ecuador and Colombia who are releasing their debut album on a label from El Salvador, that is quite exotic for someone based in the north of Europe close to the arctic circle. The band is a black metal band, a duo where a girl named Melissa growls the voices as well as the drumming and a guy called Muerto who plays the guitar and bass. And looking at the picture as well as the cover it certainly looks the part with the t-shirts and belts as well as the grotesqueness – stereotype is something that comes to mind when I look at the visual material. So what the about the audio material?

It is quite stereotyped as well with the normal smattering drums, the guttural sounds from the voice, the cavelike production and the sort of budget overall feel of the thing. Primitive is a word some would use and that is a good way to describe it, primitive black metal with some elements of thrash and some touches of occultism – especially in the intro and outro. The first song also begins in the most predictable way with smattering and roaring, there are no surprises on this album, the duo never has me stopping and taking notice. However, it is short and to the point playing for less than a half hour where I think the variation could have been somewhat larger and Melissa the vocalist could have used a bit wider vocal range to add a bit more to the overall picture – but perhaps that would have alienated some of the truer black metal fans that are most likely the targeted audience.

If you are such a black metal fan you will most likely find this album agreeable, most likely you will even find it quite good. It presses the regular black metal buttons but none of the more creative ones and what strikes me is how black metal sounds the same no matter where they are from. And to be honest, I feel very indifferent towards this album, it sounds just like anyone of those dull black metal releases that is being thrown out there into the world. I am sure these guys do what they do adequately but the ones who will like this album will be quite few and even fewer will find the die-hard version with a hand numbered certificate inked in blood of interest – personally I think it is ridiculous but each to his or her own I guess and if they think it is cool, who am I to argue?

Visiones Caóticas is one more black metal to add to the pile of dreary black metal releases that I have reviewed over the years. And it is an album that will only appeal to those into black metal, so if you are one of those it is probably worth checking out but if you belong to the majority of music fans it doesn’t offer much of value. And when it all ends one question remains: do black metal bands usually record their albums in damp caves?

HHHHHHH