siLLy puPPy ETHEREAL TRAGEDY is a somewhat mysterious band since there’s not very much info about it. This band formed as far back as 2005 in Villahermosa, Mexico as a gothic metal band but over the years switched over to a melodic death metal group. They released two demos in 2006-07 but didn’t release anything else until 2017 when they dropped two albums or EPs onto the world depending on how you consider them.

Both albums / EPs hover around the 30 minute mark. One is titled “Locked Down” and this one, the slightly longer one is SCREAMING FOR FREEDOM and features six tracks with the last track simply being an acoustic version of the second track “Control Denied” which was released with a video. Despite emerging from the extreme southern state of Tabasco in Mexico, this band is obviously going for the international market and crafts lyrics in English only.

As a quartet, the instruments presented are two guitars, bass and drums. While classified as melo-death, this band really presents a mishmash of garage rock, punk, and more thrashy metal sequences with death metal growly vocals but lead vocalist Don Moe Gonzalez also engages in clean vocals and the backing vocals often provide clean vocals that contrast with the growly leads. Tracks like “Locked Down” are more in the alternative metal realms with down-tuned guitars and a bit of keyboard backing. The riffs are somewhat like Tool however the vocals are more in the vein of Pearl Jam.

This is one of those bands that trying too hard to sound commercial and crossover. The clean vocals are fairly weak and the musicianship is fairly amateur and that’s being kind. This is very melodic and is the kind of weak metal crap you would hear in those movie theater commercials. The drumming is particularly awful as dude only knows how to play a steady beat and nothing else! While my adventurous exploration of world travel through sound often reveals a few diamonds in the rough, so too do the gods of sound deliver some real awful crap. I’m sorry to say that ETHEREAL TRAGEDY is very aptly named.