Episode 13 – Santa Sangre (right click to download)

This time we’re going south of the border. The rules were simple: our selection could only include bands bellow the U.S.-Mexico line. It’s a pure geographical criterion. So don’t expect to listen to Slayer just because Tom Araya is from Chile and Dave Lombardo is Cuban, the same way bands like Xibalba (from Los Angeles) don’t make it only because they happen to sing in Spanish.

We tell you what to expect. Expect some of the most brutal metal created anywhere in the world. These are not bands that learned about violence because they happened to pick up some tapes and stories from Norwegian Black Metal or because they’re big horror movies buffs. A lot of these people grew up wrapped up in real poverty and hostility. Sure, most of them, especially the earlier guys, are unmistakably influenced by whatever they were listening to at the time, and that meant metal from the States and from Europe. But there’s a crudeness and (as with many other music genres from the Latin countries of the Americas) a political and social awareness lacking in many of their contemporary outfits across the US border and across the Atlantic.

The hardest part was choosing just a dozen bands from such a loaded vein. The Belo Horizonte scene alone – as rich and vital as the Bay Area or Teutonic thrash metal scenes – could justify a whole episode and don’t get us started about what’s going on in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile or Argentina. And we didn’t even touch all the hardcore punk stuff.

Anyway, we’ll have to come back. For now, we won’t keep you waiting. Metal, Muerte, Destrucción! TOQUEM BEM ALTO, CARALHO!

Click for show notes and a complete tracklist.

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