BUTAMACHO — Reunión de Brujos (review)

BUTAMACHO — Reunión de Brujos album cover

Album · 2011 · Death Metal

3.5/5 · 2024-09-05
siLLy puPPy

Chile has been on fire in the last couple decades with its revival of the rotten and macabre style of blackened death metal brought to the world by bands like Asphyx, Bolt Thrower, Autopsy and Atomic Aggessor. This band emerged in 2009 in the far southern city of Castro which is practically as far as you can drive down the coast of Chile before the sparse settlements give way to the vastness of the Patagonian wilderness. This trio started out as a quartet with the early lineup of Alonso Gomez (guitar), Walter Guinel (bass), Carlos Miranda (drums) and Boris Vivar (vocals, 2009-11) with this debut REUNIÓN DE BRUJOS (Meeting Of The Warlocks) the only to feature growler Boris Vivar.

The band has released three albums since its inception with this debut coming out in 2011 on the Pacto label. A rather short collection of six tracks at just under 33 minutes in that murky gray area where you ask if it’s an EP or a bonafide album but nevertheless BUTAMACHO cranks up the volume and distortion up to maximum decibelage on this debut with a veritable mix of old school death metal in the vein of old Incantation along with moments of doom metal mixed in for good measure. The band blurs the line between the ugly nasty blackened world of war metal with the more no nonsense old school variety of death metal but with a lo-fi downtuned approach the band’s evil as fuck sound delivery is a nice nasty treat of filthy raw and unpolished death metal from the Chilean underground. Fans of early Incantation will love this one.

Graced with distinct tracks that feature varying grooves, rhythms and melodic touches underlying the grimy exterior, BUTAMACHO’s debut showcases a mix of crafty death metal that alternates speedier blastbeat infused outbursts with more reserved groovier parts that trade in the heavy pummelation for a series of cymbal majesty. The riffing is both set to quickened monstrous assault speed to more doomy slower oozing effects. Vivar’s vocals are permanently set to low guttural growls keeping the brutal below Hades effect the primary mode of action here. The band’s morbid cover art will evoke a sense of nostalgia for the old school death metal crowds who miss the days of horror, gore and display of skeletons that still carried a shock value back in the day. The band eschews any technical or progressive tendencies leaving those modernizations up to bands like Inanna who are carrying the nation into the next phase of death metal splendor.

While i wouldn’t consider BUTAMACHO’s approach here revolutionary or even a significant deviation from what has been done a million times before, the band does deliver a somewhat unique mix of percussive drive and riffing action that when taken as a whole is quite a pleasing presentation of filthy festering death metal from the abyss. Some say this is the only true death metal. While i wouldn’t quite agree i do concur that there is nothing like this old school variety that allows the cover art imagery and somewhat streamlined songwriting simplicity to not get in the way of a distortion infused noisefest. The band appears to still be active and continues to haunt southern Chile delivering enough high octane energy to melt Patagonian glaciers. A nice mix of elements that is pretty much unknown outside the confines of the Chilean homeland. Remote bands from bumfuck regions of the world have made quite a splash in recent years. BUTAMACHO is just one of many in the Chilean underground causing quite a stir