Lluvia, Premonicion de Guerra, Fallen Empire Records, vinyl FE-09 (2013)
Originally the mastermind behind this Mexican BM act was a member of an American-based band called The Rain In Endless Fall. In 2013, TRIEF moved to Mexico and changed its name to Lluvia which is Spanish for “rain”. No sooner than Lluvia got itself sorted out than its debut album “Premonicion de Guerra” (“Premonition of War”) was under way and saw the light of day in November 2013.
Right from the start the music is fierce and aggressive, all steaming buzz-guitar storm, juddering bass rhythms, frantic tom-tom work and roaring demon voices arising from the shadows generated within the music. Yet in the “first” track (“Sombras imperiales” – it’s actually track 2 but track 1 is an introductory ambient piece) alone, there is an intense atmosphere coming near the end, filled with heavy emotion and a darkness far too deep to describe fully. The aggression, energy and the cold darkness continue into the next track but though this is no less fiery and angry, the force dissipates quickly and the album falls into an introspective yet still deep and melancholic lull of acoustic guitar strum and echo.
“Espada de bronce” restores Lluvia’s early hard-hitting no-holds-barred attack force, equally as cold and malevolent as “Sombras imperiales” and not very different apart from deep bass riffs that give the track a clearer identity from the rest of the album. By the time we reach “La oscuridad doth dar la immortalidad”, the Lluvia style is now etched into our minds: angry and cold blast-beat thrumming fury leading a barrage of noisy guitars and near-frozen ghost vocals. This track has some melody and a mix of rhythms, and as it draws closer to the end a majestic though sinister climax of stark tremolo guitar melody builds up and holds well into the fade-out.
While I really love Lluvia’s style of cold, dark and raging minimalist black metal, band leader Lord Vast relies on it too much to bulk up and carry the album from start to finish. The better BM songs come late in the album and there is not very much activity near the start of most songs; the real drama tends to come near the end and it should be noted that the BM-oriented pieces are close to the 10-minute mark. Percussion is too muted and lacks the variety and flexibility in changing beats and rhythms that a capable live drummer would bring. The quiet ambient sections of the album don’t sound original and the title track itself (an all-ambient piece) appears a stereotyped recording of forest and birdsong ambience; at the very least, acoustic or not, borrowed from someone else or not, the ambient music should have a raw emotional edge and it doesn’t.
There’s a lot of potential for Lluvia’s style to develop into a complex aggressive beast: less reliance on atmospheric wash effects and apparent nature field recordings that everyone else has relied on, and more original ideas, perhaps coming from Mexican genres from across the ages, would help refine Lluvia’s music into something unique.
Contact: Fallen Empire Records