When composer / guitarist David ‘HellRazor’ Meza and bass player / vocalist Maria Alejandra ‘Blasfemia’ Pacheco Zambrano started playing under the moniker of Lucifera (it was somewhere in 2008), they did play cover songs in the first place. Everything from AC/DC to Metallica, or from Rock Goddess to Motörhead passed the revue. Yet soon, the band started writing, recording and playing self-written stuff. They recorded several things, demos, EPs, split-contributions and stuff, via international labels, and especially in South America they played many live gigs, which sort of increased their popularity.
La Cacería De Brujas (meaning something like ‘the witch hunt’) is the band’s third official full-length studio album, released two years (and a day) after Preludio Del Mal (Morbid Skull Records). It was written and performed by HellRazor (all instruments + song writing) and Blasfemia (vocals [in Spanish], arrangements and one lyric; the better part of the texts is written by (female) colleagues from Latin America once more), and recorded with assistance of Satanic Warlord (think: Sorrowful, Lapida, Fullmoon Sacrifice, Urku, Wolfera The Jackal, Ancient Serpent and many more). It got released via Aachen, Germany-based Dunkelheit Produktionen, and consists of eight new tracks that last for almost forty minutes. The concept is based on an ancient Peruvian cultus, dealing with children’s demonism, witchcraft and pre-Christian religion.
This stuff is like the essence of True Metal. Damn, it’s so fine to experience, for it totally pays tribute to the roots of Extreme Metal. All songs are some mixture of traditional, somewhat Teutonic Thrash Metal at the one hand, and primal First Wave-oriented Black Metal at the other. It is highly energetic, searching for an ideal balance in between melody and aggression. The whole rhythm section is meant to be supportive, but all bass lines and rhythm guitars are more than a coincidental part of the game. They do fully support the melodious leads (sometimes twin leads, then again rather soloing). The same goes for the drum parts, which are incredibly harsh yet, at the same time, oh so prolific. And vocal-wise too, that convinced attitude, well, what can I add?
There is quite some variation in play, though the whole concept has a clear, one-directional goal. That results in a very cohesive, yet still diverse album, which might ask for the listener’s attention the whole of the time. And that’s a great thing. Why? Well, each time you listen carefully, you might get in touch with something refreshing once again. No, ‘refreshing’ has nothing to do with progression or modernity, for La Cacería De Brujas is heavily rooted within the Old School trend, as mentioned before. Yet still the subtlety of this band’s craftsmanship shows an elegance of a high level. Compositions like Sigillum Diaboli or Arde En Llamas are nothing but a tribute to old styled thrashing Black supremacy from three decades ago; while pieces like Brujeria or Pacto Pagano come closer to the melodic South-American filthiness that characterised the scene back then. And on top of this, Lucifera make use of some related yet needful details, rooted into rather ambient and atmospheric spheres.
The sound quality is very appropriate for this kind of old styled Speed / Thrash / Black Metal, being rough-edged, rusty and, at the same time, well-equilibred. The mix gives all elements their necessary face, with probably a leading role for vocals and guitar leads, yet still focusing on every other ingredient. Still there is a certain unpolished rawness, far away from some surgically fake production, yet focusing on a heavy-weighted, dark-edged atmosphere rather than on some would-be over-produced nonsense. Yeah, this kind of material deserves such filthy sound, for that’s the only way!
Available on compact disc, vinyl and digitally…
https://dunkelheitprod.bandcamp.com/album/la-caceria-de-brujas