This past Tuesday, the self titled album for De La Tierra (DLT) was released and from the very first day it started leading the iTunes sale charts and the fans are rating the album 4 to 5 stars out of 5.
Ever since the rumors began that Alex Gonzalez, drummer from Maná and Andres Gimenez, lead singer from D-Mente and A.N.I.M.A.L. were starting a new band with Flavio Cianciarulo from Los Fabulosos Cadillacs on bass and Andreas Kisser from Sepultura on guitar, everyone began to wonder what they would sound like.
Little by little news began to come out about this new “super group”, a title which the band, humbly refuses to accept. But what else can you call a band that is made up by probably the most recognizable drummer in Spanish rock, a singer that comes from one the best hardcore metal bands in Latin America, a bass player that co-founded one of the most iconic and influential Spanish rock bands and a guitarist that is recognized all over the world as one of the best heavy metal guitar players?
As the DLT began to drop little hints of what the band was sounding like, the anticipation began to spread not only through the Spanish speaking fans, social media and the press, but English language heavy metal publications and websites began to run stories about this new band.
When DLT released a short video of the band during rehearsals, Facebook and Twitter exploded with mostly positive comments about this new band and even many skeptics, especially those coming from the heavy metal world, that have commented that at first they listened to it just for a laugh, but they actually found it interesting and they were now looking forward to the album.
The first single “Maldita Historia” was released in September of 2013 and it became an immediate hit, and now that the complete album has been released it has been received with even more excitement.
The album begins with a short introduction with finger picking on an acoustic guitar, while a melodic electric guitar glides over it and this sets the tone for the rest of the album, which contains all the power and rawness of heavy metal, but at the same times it has subtle connections to the Latin roots of the band’s members.
The album has a little bit of everything. It can go from very dark sounds and lyrics to very melodic interludes that make it feel as if angels were coming down from the heavens.
For those fans of Maná, do not expect to hear Alex’s drumming to be anything close to what he does with Maná and the same goes for Flavio. Perhaps, for Flavio working with a heavy metal band was not such a stretch as he is used to, experimenting with different sounds and genres with Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, but Alex has re-invented himself with this band since his drumming with Maná, just like Maná’s music, had become somewhat stagnant and predictable. For Andres and Andreas, they are in their element in De La Tierra, and it shows their musicianship as they are easily able to adapt to the different metal styles and rhythms on the different tracks on the album.
Overall, I think the experiment has worked, 4 musicians from different musical backgrounds have come together and created a product that heavy metal fans will be happy with and those who are not necessarily heavy metal fans will still be able to enjoy it, based on its musicality and the talent involved.
De La Tierra can be downloaded on iTunes and it can also be found on both physical and digital format on Amazon.
