Time Signature Fresh meat...

Genre: (death) thrash

Dia De Los Muertos' debut album is freely available for download at http://www.ddlm.net/ - and that is very generous of the band, and what makes this especially cool is that "Satánico Dramático" is actually a pretty good album.

Although there are some death metal elements, and a track like "The Fifth Republic" is probably more of a death metal track, with blastbeats and growls to boot, my overall impression is that it is more of a thrash metal release. The riffage is primarily thrash metal derived, and, at time, it sounds inspired by the likes of Slayer. This being said, there is also a considerable amount of melody to some of the tracks, such as "Las Calaveras del Terror", "Sigo Vivo" and the closing instrumental "Satánico Dramático" (which seems inspired by the classic "Apache"), which took me a bit by surprise on first listen - and I am sure that melodeath along the lines of Carcass and Arch Enemy serves as a central source of inspiration (it's probably not a coincidence that Jeff Walker makes a guest appearance on this album).

It is no real surprise that this release is such a solid one for a debut album, as the musicians are very experienced and highly skilled with backgrounds in various prominent metal bands. The sound is unpolished, but not too raw for the style, yet dirty enough not to lose the feel of thrash metal authenticity.

If you love thrash metal, you should check this album out.

UMUR "Satánico Dramático" is the debut full-length studio album by US death/ thrash metal act Dia De Los Muertos. The album was released in March 2011 by Cinismo Records. In order to promote the album Dia De Los Muertos has offered free download of the album on their official website.

The music on the album is death/ thrash and there are some clear references to bands like Arc Enemy and the most melodic and hard rock oriented Carcass. To further strengthen the link to the latter, Jeff Walker delivers a guest vocal appearence on the "Fresh Meat to the Grinder" track. Scott Carlson from Repulsion also appears as a guest on that track. There´s focus on delivering "in your face" and memorable death/ thrash tracks, and the band generally succeed in doing that, but they don´t neglect to put a bit of melody into their music either, so there´s a good balance between aggression and harmonic content. The above mentioned "Fresh Meat to the Grinder", the out and out thrash metal track "Sigo Vivo" and the closing melodic instrumental title track are the three tracks that stand out most from the rest and it´s also those three tracks that provide enough variation to give the album an extra dimension.

Featuring members and ex-members of acts like Agony, Body Count, Asesino, Dreams of Damnation and Static-X, it´s safe to say these guys ( and one lead vocalist girl) aren´t newbies and it´s obvious in the execution of the material. The playing is solid and delivered with conviction.

The production by Alfonso Pinzón suits the music very well and while I would personally have prefered a more raw production with a bit more grit, it´s an aquired taste, and looked upon objectively the production is professional and well sounding.

The music on "Satánico Dramático" isn´t going to revolutionize the world of metal, for that there´s too little innovation, but fans of Arc Enemy and late period Carcass should be able to find a lot to like on this album. A 3.5 star rating is deserved.