Sunday 19 March 2023

Santo Rostro - Despu​é​s No Habrá Nada (Album Review)

Release Date: March 10th 2023. Record Label: Various Labels. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl

Despu​é​s No Habrá Nada: Tracklisting


1.Telarañas 03:50

2.Carcasa Digital 04:28

3.Aire 05:43

4.Matriz 08:09

5.Después No Habrá Nada 11:51


Members


Luis Martos - Bass 

Kuki Galiano - Drums

Miguel Ortega - Guitars

Antonio Gámez - Vocals


Review


Doom/Stoner Metallers Santo Rostro return with their fourth album Despu​é​s No Habrá Nada and sees one of the finest bands from the Spanish Underground scene playing some of their most varied and interesting songs to date. The album merges Doom, Stoner, Prog, Sludge, Psych and Grunge but with a Nineties Alt Metal sound holding everything together.


The vocals are sung in Spanish and Antonio’s vocals are impressive and emotionally charged throughout. The music is constantly dark, gloomy and musically adventurous when Santo Rostro adapts a more Progressive delivery on songs such as Telarañas and Carcasa Digital. I can hear influences from bands such as Mastodon, Breed 77, Neurosis and Alice In Chains from the opening two songs but Santo Rostro has always been great at merging different creative themes from the multitude of different genres they have used on previous albums.


Santo Rostro doesn't mind being quite JAZZY with the stop/start feeling of the Psychedelic and Sonic beats that the album holds. Things can be quite peaceful one moment and savage the next with the band drawing upon their Spanish Roots in certain parts of the lyrics. I may not fully understand them but I can tell there’s a deep human and emotional connection to these lyrics for the band which is perhaps delivered and shines through on tracks such as: Aire and Matriz.


The one thing we can all agree upon is the sheer technical ability of the band as they lay down some epic proggy guitar solos that would make Mastodon even blush. There’s some wonderful MELVINS style creativity when Santo Rostro plays a more vivid style of music. 


The later stages of the album are perhaps more PSYCHEDELIC and even FREAKY in places but Santo Rostro doesn't waste time in playing impressive riffs after another.


Despu​é​s No Habrá Nada benefits from excellent production values with Santo Rostro fastly becoming one of the premiere bands from the Spanish Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal scene. This album's “NO HOLDS BARRED” approach allows Santo Rostoro to release their most exciting album to date and will hopefully allow the band to expand their fan-base a whole lot further within the Underground Scene.


Excellent and Highly Recommended.


Words by Steve Howe.


You can buy the album on CD/DD/Vinyl from the links below: 

Santo Rostro / Discos Macarras / LaRubia Producciones / Spinda Records

Links

Facebook | BandCamp