Masacre- Requiem (Classic Feature)

Masacre- Reqviem (Requiem) 

Band- Masacre
Album – Requiem (written Reqviem, like in Latin)
Release Date- October 1, 1991
Stars- /classic review
Origin- Medellin, Colombia
Label- Osmose Productions originally/ Raven Metal for the rerelease

Ladies and gents, Metalheads of all demeanor and standing, take a seat. We are here today to discuss a musical plague many of you might've not heard of (yet you should've, isn't it always a bigger pity to know you're missing something than actually missing it?) But to begin, lets go into a bit of context and history. Many people think of the early Norwegian and Finnish Black Metal acts as troubled. Hell, many would go as far as to even call Norway's Mayhem as the most troubled and infamous band in Extreme Metal's short history. Yet, oddly enough, Mayhem's luck seems to carry over into who their amicable with it seems. Enter Masacre (pronounced Ma-sa-kre, Spanish for massacre.) Masacre are one of the earliest grandaddies of the Colombian Black/Death scene. You know all that “Bestial Death Metal” stuff that goes around now a days? That Blackened Death Metal which is dirtier than the cats Dabush kill for their schwarma? Heavy as all hell, furious and gives about as much dues as you see unicorns walking around? Stuff like Bestial Mockery and Teitanblood? Well Masacre wrote the playbook for it. Without money, without means, and at the time, a country with a small Metal scene, Masacre made do with what they had. And now a days, you have guys all over the globe, from Singapore to Poland to Sweden trying to recapture that brutish o' natural ugliness.

But where were we? Oh yes, their history. Well, Masacre came through around the time where the tape trade was strong. When bands like Salem (fun fact, vocalist Alex “Trapeator” Oquendo still remember being in contact with the Israeli scene's very own, Ze'ev Tenenbaum,while drummer at the time, Mauricio “Bull Metal” Montoya was in contact with both him and Yishai Sweartz) Sodom, Mayhem, Sepultura and others were sending their tapes, the Colombians were just starting to make a name for themselves. One fateful day, Masacre came into contact with none other than the infamous Oystien “Euronymous” Aarseth of the aforementioned legendary Mayhem. Such a meeting must have thrilled the Masacre guys quite a bit, as they themselves are big fans of the band (even going as far as dedicating the album we talk about today, Requiem, to Dead.) Considering the blaspheme and lo-fi nature of their music, the guys from Mayhem were pretty thrilled as well, and that resulted in quite a back and forth . Eventually, Oystien seized the opportunity and offered the band a spot in his up and coming label, Deathlike Silence. Excited the band wanted to release their follow up album, Sacro through Euronymous' label, feeling that their dream of worldwide recognition was neigh. Yet such was not the case, as due to Euronymou's murder at the hands of one, nice, lovely dude named Varg Vikernes, nothing came to fruition. But alas when things seemed grim for our Colombian travelers, they got into a slot which was as interesting as the first release (EVER) by giant French Black Metal label, Osmose productions (who housed everyone from Immortal and Enslaved to Absu and Vital Remains to James Hetfield's twice removed three times added cousin's grandmother for a while.)

The album itself, Requiem, starts off pretty nonchalantly. The small intro in the beginning has a sound of fires in the background while an acoustic guitar plays a tune which could be mistaken as Guitar Pro's newest intro. I guess this was done to fuck with the listener to the point of him knocking his head into the wall while the next track kicked in. Cortejo Funebre ( Funeral Procession) is a fitting opener to the chaos. Starting in slowly, while paving the way for the deathly feast itself. Needless to say, around midway the celebrations kick into full swing and the foot which was dancing around the pedal, now has it, fully to the metal. Yet oddly enough, instead of keeping it full speed, it goes back down to this dark and ominous Death Metal part that represents a bit of more refined version of South American Death Metal than one would be used to. The stigma that South American Death Metal is just visceral, mindless blasting is all but gone. While it is lo fi, and obviously was not made with a million dollar sound like is available today, or even the more produced record of back then, the riffs are clever , well written and beautifully integrated.

Of course, one of the most obvious points about the band is that it is in Spanish. Now, don't let that be a deal breaker for you, as it actually sounds pretty damn awesome with the music. Even for me, as a person who speaks the language, it was hard to get used to with Thrash, but in Death Metal where the pronunciations are anywhere between fully understandable and fucking gibberish (looking right at you John Tardy,) it's much easier to get used to. Also, an added bonus is that it's much easier to translate to English, and actually, considering that while, the band's name might mislead you to think otherwise, their lyrics are not very gore based. The lyrics are just as politically motivated , at least on Requiem, as Sepultura's were around their Beneath The Remains time. Well, “reality goes far beyond any dream” I guess.

Also, right off from the two openers , Cortejo Funebre and Justicia Ramera (pronounced חוסטיסיה רמרה and means, colloquially Prostituted Justice,) you can notice the Black Metal influence on the music. Some of the dark passages between riffs really sound like something taken out of the 90's Norwegian scene. Wellll, you sleep with dogs you wake up with fleas, you know? But it actually fits the music very well, as it does really fall into the middle line between those two genres, somewhere between Deicide and old Marduk. Also, the band's history is a bit more of a sadder one than the usual Death Metal fare. Their first drummer, the one you will be listening to on this record, Mauricio “Bull Metal” Montoya who by the way, was also the guy who release Mayhem's controversial bootleg “Dawn of the Black Hearts” on his label Warmaster Records, ended up committing suicide in the December 2002 (R.I.P.) Following such a heavy misfortune, although not for the band's music as he moved on by then. was the loss of esteemed and long time member of the band Victor Gallego in October 2005 to cancer (R.I.P.) But before and after these difficulties, the band members have kept the band going strong, both in the memory and hopefully posthumous pride of their departed members. w

Yet, this album is one for them to be proud of, and take fond memories of their time together with Mauricio, as is exemplified with the next song, Brutales Masacres (Brutal Massacres). My favorite track on the album, it actually manages to break through with this super catchy riff, which follows Trapeator's hollowed screams in the beginning. That's one of the things I find most beautiful about the early Colombian scene, they had absolutely no means, no support and yet, they still managed to do things that people now all across the world with all the means in the universe can't. Also, the music is very inclusive, the riffs on the verses are very Thrashy, while you have Black parts here and there, and Death all over the plate. This is what “Extreme” Metal should be, not a definition thrown around by musicians who don't want to say what type of elements they might have used to concoct with. Not that I have an issue with more far removed elements, but when it really takes from all version of extreme Metal in it's many colors, its at that point where it needs a broader rather than more specific definition.

As we jump from Brutales Masacres to Sepulcros En Ruinas (Sepulchers In Ruins,) we see that while musically the tracks kind of sit together on line that can be defined as Extreme Metal, the band isn't afraid to go into many different lyrical topics. Brutales Masacres and Escoria discuss openly about the dismal situation of Colombia at the time, and the...well “Brutales Masacres” happening in the streets. You see, Colombia has had an on and off problem with internal conflicts, led by Guerillas over around 50 years now. Violence, much like an Israel, was a taste of the ordinary for them. While now it is much safer than it was, say, 20/10 years ago, since around the album's release (the album was released in 1991, the statistic is from 1990) Colombia has experienced around 1,300 casualties from mines alone every year (http://www.the-monitor.org/index.php/cp/display/region_profiles/theme/2523.)

But the album also moves onto other lyrical topics with songs like Sepulcros En Ruinas. Also a socially conscience song, is about the situation of the Church in their home state. Much like in other countries in South America (with Brazil probably being the most extreme,) Catholicism is embraced much more deeply than say, in Western and Northern Europe and there's a strong hostility to nonbelievers (such as, in Brazil, it's very common to see Atheists or Atheist organization members being openly attacked and the police refusing to do much about it.) So the album, while deeply connected in sound and style to many other Death Metal album, is a bit more rooted in reality than many other popular works.

Following Escoria, the album goes into a track which was first premiered on Masacre's debut EP, the eponymous Ola De Violencia (Smell of Violence.) A bit of a Morbid Angel sounding track, at least in its first parts, this was a part of Masacre's first formidable outing into the global Metal scene. The track itself showed a lot of things to come, representing a mix of many of the elements. It is also one of the last three tracks which all together are, much like Brutales Masacres related to politics. But they all show a different side to the conflict. While Ola De Violencia is solely about violent occurances, and is a very graphic song in it's nature, kind of a Cannibal Corpse view on real warfare, the last two tracks take a step back.

The first of which, Tiempos De Guerra (Times of War) is kind of a predicted escalation of the situation. If I may harken back to Megadeth and the quote, “the end is near, it's crystal clear, part of the master plan?” so imagine that on a much more personal scale. The tracks rage, and a show of obvious discontent towards their situation,, is actually touching on an emotional level. A scream of people who were in a situation they had no control over, yelling over such troubled times that the future seemed wholly uncertain. While many bands sing about war, from every view point imaginable, Masacre give it a realistic edge that, if you go into the lyrics, does make for an interesting read. Especially if you compare it with the situation of Colombia at the time (i'll include some wikipedia articles on the bottom. They might not be perfect, data wise, , but they're a start rather than thinking “Mhmm! Colombia cartels and violence right?!)



But here we are, 42 minutes later, and we're at the end into this peep hole into the troubled Colombia of 20 years ago. While it is obviously pessimistic (well, yeah, Death Metal in the end of the day) it is refreshing and harrowing to hear a view into a war and a reality that we don't hear much about in the news and aren't very knowledgeable about, yet on the other hand, can compare with our own to some degree. The album closes with Conflicto De Paz (Conflict of Peace) which is to me at least, a great closing track title for the album, and lyrically the perfect seal. It goes into the problem of the country in kind of an over view, a general walk through all the many topics discussed on the album, and brings to an end. Those are the conflicts with peace. As a person who lives in Israel for 9 years now, I believe every one in Israel knows some version the “Conflicto De Paz” too well.

Links to delve a bit deeper into the Situation in Colombia, perhaps before hearing the album to get in the mood - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombian_conflict_(1964%E2%80%93present)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramilitarism_in_Colombia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Armed_Forces_of_Colombia (the largest faction involved excep the Colombian government itself, still 7-10 thousand members to this day!)