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Cultura Tres, El Mal del Bien: La Amenaza que se Arrastra

Posted in Reviews on November 26th, 2012 by JJ Koczan

Originally released on vinyl in South America last year, Venezuelan four-piece Cultura Tres’ second album, El Mal del Bien, arrives on CD/LP under the banner of UK imprint Devouter Records. It is the latest in a series of impressive achievements from the atmospheric sludgers, who also made a stop at Desertfest in London this year (review here) on a European tour that might have been their first but wasn’t their last. Their La Cura debut arrived in 2008 and immediately established their aggressive take, and was well received in South America and beyond. The tracks on El Mal del Bien (“the bad from the good”) were recorded in 2010, so it may well be that Cultura Tres have already moved past the album’s atmospherically dense lurch in their writing, but as their newest release to date, it’s nonetheless relevant, particularly as the band has taken the last couple years to work vehemently on promotion with big shows, videos and so on. The most immediately striking aspect of the 10-track/51:38 outing is its overarching darkness. Cultura Tres open with their longest cut (points right there), the 7:20 “Propiedad de Dios,” which remains a memorable highlight among several throughout El Mal del Bien and does the work of establishing the creepy undertones and malevolence that seems always to be lurking within the songwriting. The guitar work of Alejandro Londono and Juan Manuel de Ferrari is unmistakably metal in its roots, and Londono’s distinct lead vocals, sometimes a snarl, sometimes Alice in Chains lower-mouth crooning, sometimes all-out screams, serve throughout as a defining factor as well. Sludge metal, with the emphasis on the latter, is rarely done in this balance. The prevalence of the US scene and its roots in Southern rock and punk mean that Cultura Tres’ metal is automatically a curio as “Propiedad de Dios” enacts its formidable lumber punctuated by David Abbink’s echoing snare, Londono working somewhere between a growl and moan while his and de Ferrari’s guitars hold steady rhythm and lead lines filled out by Alonso Milano’s bass. Milano and de Ferrari are credited with backing Londono vocally as well, and there are a few striking moments of interplay, but the band’s greatest impact is made as a whole unit and not as individual members, the mood that El Mal del Bien strikes being central to the album’s mission and, ultimately, its success.

“Purified” furthers the drama of the opening cut and solidifies the atmosphere, and from there, Cultura Tres hold tight and don’t let go. The lyrics are a mixture of Spanish and English phrases, well set in terms of cadence and rooted in a decidedly anti-Christian stance, and de Ferrari answers the unsettling vocal melodies with one of El Mal del Bien’s several excellent guitar solos, setting up the percussion that rises to feature on the instrumental “Los Muertos de Mi Color.” Guitar noise and volume swells fill out an oppressive atmosphere, and whatever else they do, Cultura Tres excellently convey a sense of the deranged in their music. It’s not the en vogue thing to do at this point – that’d probably be to take out a goat head and start playing Electric Wizard riffs in front of it (not knocking that approach, it works for plenty of bands) – but their methods don’t seem dated even if the territory they’re covering thematically will be well familiar to headbangers who encounter these tracks. The undeniable highlight of the album, “El Sur de la Fe” follows the ambience of “Los Muertos de Mi Color,” with an immediate hook of a guitar line, righteous half-time drumming and a forward, aggressive vocal from Londono. Like the best of Cultura Tres’ riffs, that of “El Sur de la Fe” has an undulating sensibility to it, a distinct nod, and the tension the song creates is made all the more palpable by the stops and starts and the echoing shouts, which, when in the last verse “the credit of god” is delivered, remind a bit of Max Cavalera’s work on early Soulfly records. I’ll allow that could be a question of accent as much as anything else, but it’s there all the same. The album has peaked before its halfway point, which is potentially troubling, but actually there’s a kind of wash effect by the time the second half of El Mal del Bien really takes hold that only confirms the disgruntled push of the first. “No Es Mi Verdad” caps the first half with a post-metal build that pays off at 4:33 into its six minutes as Abbink proffers the cymbal abuse he seems to have been advocating all along, chugging guitars driving a straightforward progression behind.

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Cultura Tres’ El Mal del Bien to see November Release; Tour Dates Booked

Posted in Whathaveyou on October 1st, 2012 by JJ Koczan

Come November 12, Venezuelan sludgers Cultura Tres will issue the formerly self-released El Mal del Bien through Devouter Records on CD and LP. The band, who I was fortunate enough to catch live at this year’s Desertfest in London, are a dramatic storm of metallic malevolence, and in addition to putting out the album through Devouter, they’ve booked a few tour dates to celebrate the release, also in the UK. I guess they made an impression, and rightly so.

Here’s all the news that’s fit to cut and paste in blue type, and the album in its entirety, courtesy of Cultura Tres‘ Bandcamp page:

New release from Devouter Records – Cultura Tres

Devouter Records are proud to present the release of the Venezuelan Doom-Metallers Cultura Tres’ 2nd album El Mal del Bien, out on the 12th November on CD and LP.

Pre-Order the CD or Vinyl at http://devouterrecords.bigcartel.com/

Previously self-released by the band at the beginning of 2012, Devouter Records have printed them to CD for the first time with distribution via Shellshock distribution.

El Mal Del Bien delves deeper into the dark atmospheric which the band had already shown at moments in debut their album La Cura. The daring album opener “Propiedad de Dios” sets the mood: it sounds like the soundtrack of a tragic cult movie. The songs that follow evoke the witchery, slavery, oppression and religious madness that influence the South American continent to this day. Being a concept album adds another dimension to the individual songs. A patient listener will be dragged into a hallucinating trip around the insane world the album paints.

Cultura Tres are now hailed as the national rock/sludge pride of Venezuela. From their first EP “Seis” (2007) the band already outgrew the South American continent. But only after releasing debut album “La Cura” in October 2008, the band started to get noticed worldwide. During the preceding year of rigorous composing, Cultura Tres incorporated many influences into their sound, ranging from sludge to doom metal and from death metal to classic rock.

The band plays 4 gigs in the UK in November:

Nov 15th – Colchester @TBA (w/ TELEPATHY & OLD MAN LIZARD
Nov 16th – TBC
Nov 17th – Birmingham @The Asylum (w/ SLABDRAGGER, GRIMPEN MIRE, UNDERSMILE and more)
Nov 18th – London @ The Purple Turtle (w/ TELEPATHY, ABRAHMA, SOLARIS, ENOS and more)

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