It is (almost) always nice to receive unexpected material by a band of a label with the question if undersigned is interested in doing a review for their stuff. Sometimes it’s rather a task, a heavy weight to accept, then again there are hidden treasures that suddenly appear and that do deserve my full attention. And sometimes it is somewhere in between a blessing and a curse.
That’s the case with Duin, which is the second album by Cóndor. The band was formed in Colombia’s capital city Bogota in 2013, and that very same year Cóndor released the debut recording Nadia, also via Gomorrah Records. This time the trio (Antonio Espinosa, Francisco Fernandez and Andrés Felipe Lopez) worked with some session musicians (Steven Johansen and Julius E. Bola), and had the material recorded with assistance of Luis Mesa (he took care of the studio duties for the debut as well, and used to be part of the Vertebrae line-up along with Andrés and Antonio) and Vannessa Bright in August 2014.
Ruin opens with an intro based on Smetana’s Vltava (you will surely recognize the melodies), first acoustic, then joined by semi-acoustic and bass guitars, and as from half of the track much heavier, i.e. with electric strings. Then comes material in the vein of the debut album, though somewhat more matured. El Lamento De Penélope, for example, combines epic melodies with quite heavy rhythms, fire-breathing grunts and quite some variation in tempo. It sounds heavy as well as primitive. When coming back to the latter, the ‘primitive’ approach, I am rather referring to the simplicity and predictability of the material, though the unpolished sound too does influence this statement. Halfway the piece there’s an acoustic passage, before returning to fierce, pounding Epic Metal with quite some elements from Traditional Heavy and Doom Metal. Some riffs remind me to the earliest efforts of Satyricon (especially towards the end of the track), then again it’s rather Manowar that seems to be of inspiration. And that goes for many other pieces too on this album.
There are other cons, as well as pros to add, but I guess most of those elements are personal, subjective. It’s up to the listener what to think about it. So you have, for example, some spoken word passages and clean voices, many acoustic or semi-acoustic excerpts, melodious solos, classical melodies, brutal accelerations versus pushing down-tempo passages, Necromantia-alike bass lines (at least the sound is quite comparable); I think even the artwork is discussable and doubtful. Personally I prefer the slower yet intense pieces, such as Concordäle, but that might have to do with my unlimited passion for old schooled Doom-Death too, for sure. The superficial, little enlightening parts are not directly my cup of poisonous tea. But once again, that’s a personal opinion, yet since it’s undersigned who writes this review right now, I am allowed to add this, haha…
The intentions are clearly present, but there is still room for growth. Duin is an album with potential, but it did not fulfil my expectations completely. I assure you that Cóndor are a band apart, having an own sound, but their strained approach needs more character, tightness and focus.