Kev Rowland When Brujeria first hit the extreme metal scene back in the Nineties, there was a great deal of discussion as to who was actually in the band, as they all used nicknames to hide their true identities. On guitar and bass was none other than Aesino, probably best known to many as Dino Cazares of Fear Factory, and due to involvement of members in other bands, Brujeria kept going on hiatus while they fulfilled other commitments. It took two years for the second album to see the light of day, five for the third, but no-one ever imagined that it would take sixteen years for the fourth to come out. There have been quite a few changes in the band in the intervening years, with Dino no longer there, but singer Juan Brujo has been a constant, as has bassist Fantasma and guitar/bassist Hongo and Pinche Peach (backing vocals/samples). They have always prided themselves on playing metal heavily influenced by grindcore and early thrash, along with some Mexican influences. To be honest, they have personally always reminded me of early Sepultura, in terms of brutality, rawness and sheer power.

The sixteen-year layoff hasn’t done them any harm, as this album shows them still as heavy as they have always been. They haven’t lost their sense of humour either, with the final song being a Spanish language tongue-in-cheek cover of the Dead Kennedy’s "California über Alles". Let’s just hope that it doesn’t take quite so long for the next one!

Vim Fuego After some of the utter bullshit Donald Trump has spouted in the run up to the 2016 presidential election, Mexicans wanting Trump to win the presidency seems about as sensible as turkeys looking forward to Christmas. Trump’s gonna build a wall! Trump’s gonna deport the Mexicans and the aliens! Trump’s gonna start a war!

Well, the pudgy orange-tinted, tax-dodging, scarecrow-haired, pussy-grabbing little cocksucker better watch out. Brujeria are gonna fucking finish that war!

Released for Record Store Day 2016, this single leaves the world in no doubt what Juan Brujo, El Cynico, Pititis, Hongo and the rest of the Brujeria cartel think of Trump. The initial thousand copy run of this single were pressed in black, green, red, and white to represent the colours of the Mexican flag.

The hate-filled bile of the song’s introduction is not provided by the band, but by Donald John Trump, a New York real estate billionaire, occasional asshole reality TV star, and owner of the reddest neck ever to make the ballot papers in a US presidential election. As has become to be expected from Trump, the speech isn’t particularly coherent or well thought out, but it presses all the right buttons for the right-wing, gun-toting, Dixie-picking, cousin-loving, Bible-belters of his target audience. He’s gonna build a great wall across the Southern states, and then make Mexico pay for it. Juan Brujo would beg to differ.

El Cynico’s bass rumbles into place, Brujo snarls and growls over top of it, and Brujeria’s infamous racket delivers a message from south of the border. This says it all: “El quiere Guerra/Igual que yo/Hechando chingasos/Entrale cabron” and “Habla mierda - de mexico/Odia mojados - deportar los/Quiere guerra - entrale carbon/Ya hay soldados metidos en cada pinche rincon!” Take that, motherfucker!

Oh, you probably want a translation. OK, try this on for size: “He wants war/And so do I/Throwing punches/Get in the ring motherfucker” and “He talks shit, about Mexico/He hates wetbacks, deport them/He wants war, get in the ring fucker/There are soldiers in every fucking corner!” Pretty fucking angry in any language.

If you know Brujeria, you know what you’re getting here- dirty big distorted riffs, grinding bass, an obligatory messy blast beat, and dark, dark humour inside which there’s a serious message. It’s all as subtle as a sledgehammer to the testicles.

The sounds of The Donald being hacked to mush with machetes at the end of the song is a fitting demise for the bloated billionaire bigot.

B-side “Pared De Muerte” (Wall of Death) is a tribute to the moshpit game loved by generations of headbangers, a long-haired, denim-clad version of primal battle scenes enacted the world over for millennia, before the invention of the machine-gun ruined the fun. For anyone who has never participated in a Wall of Death moshpit, the crowd separates into two halves with a space down the middle, and then runs at each other, resulting in an almighty crash of bodies. It’s not exactly sensible or safe but it’s one hell of an adrenaline rush. A nice touch as the song fades out is a rendition of one of death metal’s heaviest and most famous riffs, from Pestilence’s “Out Of Body”.

So yeah, fuck you Trump. Bring it on. Mexico is ready and waiting.

Vim Fuego Taken at face value, this would be fucking scary stuff. Mexican druglords, devil worship, a severed head on the cover, a mangled corpse inside, and some of the most insane death metal sounds you'll ever hear. It's enough to scare even the toughest of metal fans.

Well, it's all a big sick joke. Brujeria is an outlet for members of a couple of well-known bands to let off a bit of steam, play a bit of back to basics death metal, fuck about in Spanish, and basically have a good time. And what a time they have. With brutality and speed set on high, sound quality and song writing on low, and all lyrics in growled, messed up Mexican Spanish, all a listener can do is sit back and enjoy. The vocals do have a sinister bandito style charm to them though.

It all sounds like Carcass' "Reek Of Putrefaction" played death metal style rather than grindcore. It is all ill–defined instruments, fuzzy edges and bass heavy bludgeoning. It all sounds like it was thrown together in a quick couple of days in the studio, fuelled by beer and a few of the substances Brujeria are rumoured to trade in. The lyric sheet has been included. Even a limited knowledge of Spanish reveals a few of the song titles.

If you're looking for serious death metal, avoid this. If you're a fan of low fidelity fuck–about death/grind, give this a listen. You could do a lot worse.

Vim Fuego Music is a mood thing. Some days, the ethereal sounds of a new age forest soundscape or the precisely orchestrated power of a Beethoven symphony fit the mood. Other days however, nothing but sick fucking grinding death metal will do the job. For a totally mindless death metal fix, Brujeria’s “Raza Odiada” is hard to beat.

The mysterious Mexican based supergroup makes absolutely no compromise to subtlety whatsoever. There’s no room for melody, harmony, or even much common sense. Other than a spoken intro by Jello Biafra, the entire album is performed in garbled Spanish. It’s pretty difficult for a non-Spanish speaker to figure out what is going on, but it’s immediately obvious to speakers of any language that it is unsavoury, brutal, and more than a little tongue in cheek.

It is possible to glean a little meaning from some of the tracks though. “La Migra” actually had a video made for it, with English subtitles. It is about the treatment Mexican illegal immigrants get when trying to sneak into the United States. Apparently, the US Immigration Service isn’t afraid to beat anyone, including grandmothers and the mentally infirm, and they enjoy a bit of sodomy on the side. “Padre Nuestro” is a new version of a song which first appeared as a seven inch single and appeared on the ‘At Death’s Door II’ compilation.

Juan Brujo and his crew learned how to play their instruments a little better than on the band’s 1993 debut, the delightfully chaotic ‘Matando Gueros’. They must have also made a killing in the narcotics underworld too, because the production sounds clearer too. A number of the songs are sequels to those from the first album, but the vital spontaneity of the band is retained.

It’s impossible to pick up more than a few words here and there, and while the songs are hardly identical to one another, there is little to be gained from trying to distinguish one track from another. Brujeria’s music is a mess, but you probably knew that before you picked up the album. Enjoy it for what it is- mindless fun.