We are back to listen to the second round of the Patos (Ducks) from Next. In this case, bassist Héctor Morales joined and the trio became a quartet that shows an evolution to the formula of their first album and they give us Silencio Nocturno (Night Silence).
The group returned with a good album of solid thrash that immediately takes you back to that golden age in the late 80's. There are no progressive twists or unnecessary exhibitionism here, but there is a formula that works and sounds great. The addition of Morales' talent on the bass is precise and he adds a bit of “color” in sections where he surprises and helps the guitar riffs not sound flat. Erick's work on the drums is polished and mature to the level of a musician who understands exactly what the song needs and adds fills only at the right moments. This fits wonderfully with the themes, alternating speed and fierceness with punctual accents that accompanies these riffs that Carlos and Sergio present us on guitars whose tone has two qualities, they sound sharp but quite clear. However, there is something in the mix of the guitars that turns tyring to hear as the album goes by, and they even rival Carlos's voice in volume sometimes but lose a bit of presence in the solos, one thing is to silence the mids in the amp, but sometimes you go overboard by extending that EQ to the entire final mix.
There some pretty good riffs on the album and with good reason they made their songs something that sticks in your head. There is a little more experimentation, and that is that they took advantage of the two guitarists dynamic with harmonies here and there. Again we hear guitar solos that don't usually go on longer than necessary, sometimes very successful and sometimes, a bit uninspired; on the other hand, it might be due to the equalization in the mix that they get lost within the sound of the rest of the band and feel like a graffiti on the wall instead of a framed painting coming out of it.
The album welcomes us with a conceptual first half, Carlos Alanís, vocalist and frontman, who takes the second guitar duties after playing bass on the past album, has mentioned that they were based on the 1973's film Alcatraz. Therefore, we will listen to the journey from El Juicio (The Judgement), which becomes a banner of the band with that simple but iconic main riff from the first time you hear it. We open ourselves to an experience that alternates speeds and complexity, after which we experience the claustrophobic desperation of confinement (Poco Tiempo [Little Time]), the determination and the process of escaping (Vamos a Escapar [Let's escape]), in order to reflect on the consequences of having fulfilled a sentence (Mirando hacia Atrás [Looking back]). Something that will bother those who are looking for a linear and consistent narrative will be the line “I already served that sentence”, but it is too far-fetched to think about it to consider it within a serious critique of the album.
To close the first half, we are greeted by a rather ominous synth intro and an inverted message (“The destiny of humanity has been fulfilled. The heritage of humanity is this mutant world”). Mundo de mutantes (World of Mutants) doesn't continue with the story of the prison, but it does continue the two parts of Holocaust on its first album with a more fanciful horrific passage; which is far from the crude realism that we will find in the rest of the album. Regarding the theme, there is no complaint; although we must admit that the lyric writing is not a strong point on this album, but neither is it something that collapeses everything else either.
The second half of the album would be perhaps the heaviest with the album's title track and Cámara de Gas (Gas Chamber), which offer passages with dark and raw narratives, accompanied by merciless riffs that immediately made them classics. All this death scenario is interrupted by a quite captivating instrumental and acoustic piece, Norma Jean Baker was not only the first name of that attractive blonde who conquered the world at the time when she was renamed Marilyn Monroe; it is also a dreamy piece of music, beautiful if somehow melancholic. Finally, Dipsomania is a bit more relaxed but it has a raw riff before its brief solo, as well as its devastating break-down that closes with a flourish an extremely gratifying experience, an album that enjoys a level of high-end manufacturing quality and that is also full of memorable themes.
Personnel
Carlos Alanís - vocals and guitar
Sergio Alanís - guitar
Erick Alanís - drums
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