SilentScream213 Despite a short career, Hermetica were and remain one of the most revered old school bands in their home country of Argentina. Calling them strictly Thrash would be a misnomer – like the American Metallica, most of their albums feature a variety of Metal and even non-Metal styles, but Thrash is what they’re known for. Their final release, Víctimas del Vaciamiento, is probably the best example of this.

The album has a lot of different styles going on, all of them revolving around Antonio’s guitar and Ricardo’s composition style. While most of the material isn’t mind-blowing in any way, it certainly gets the job done, and offers a great selection of Thrashy riffs and Trad Metal groove. The biggest weakness for me is Claudio’s high pitched vocals, which cannot create a hook or anything other than an obnoxious squeaky yell. Ricardo does vocals on a couple tracks, and his deep, melodic voice is much, much better.

I don’t mean this as a slight against the album, but considering this the best Thrash Metal release of 1994 just goes to show how dead in the water Thrash was at this point. Víctimas del Vaciamiento is a great album, but cannot hold a candle to most of the great Thrash material that came out prior, especially given how not much of this album is true Thrash.