When I first got this promo pack the first thing I did was read the bio. Strewn throughout was references and comparisons to Carcass, Brutal Truth, Autopsy, Impetigo and Exhumed. Of course, I, being smarter than your average bear, realize that’s all just PR bullshit and means the band is probably another boring clone. However, upon listening to the CD I scanned back through the press release trying to figure out who the fuck wrote it, because Machetazo is nothing like any of the band’s they are compared to, except maybe the fact that the music is aggressive and that all of these bands have drums, guitars and vocals. Anyway… with that said, I must say I was rather impressed by Machetazo, I honestly wasn’t expecting much from them and they certainly surprised me. The music is a hybrid of erratic grind and old school death metal, with some blazingly fast tunes and some slow grinders. The highlights are many, with a fair amount of difference between songs, causing the album to be rather entertaining in it’s variety. The music is full of energy and rage, the production is dark and raw, perfect for this genre of music. The drumming is surprisingly varied for a band of this genre and the guitars chug along at a thick steady pace, with a few well played solos strewn in from time to time to add a bit of variety. The covers of Abscess‘ "Suicide Fuck" and S.O.B.’s "Delusion Of Terror" are decent, however a far cry from the originals. For the most part Machetazo are a very entertaining group, but some of the high screech vocals really get on my nerves, especially on "Marutá (Carne de Cementerio)" and "Los Cuentos del Muñón Gangrenoso", which practically gives me the urge to punch the nearest person in the face, even if they aren’t screeching at me. The intros I found to be rather annoying as well, then again I’ve never really been a huge fan of movie clip intros in music, since almost every band does it and the whole practice has become ridiculous. The low deep guttural death metal vocals are great and tend to counteract the annoyingness of the high vocals, but there are stretches on a few songs with nothing but the highs, so I tend to skip through those. While not being on the same level as my favorite grinders; early Carcass, Terrorizer, Repulsion and the new Last Days Of Humanity, they are far better than bore-grinders Exhumed and Impetigo. These spaniards should garner a lot of attention within the gore-grind community for releasing one of the better albums within the genre in a number of years. Machetazo are by far the finest band I’ve heard from Spain and hopefully there will be more from this deranged duo in the near future.

Written By: Teufel