Santo Rostro Premiere Después no habrá nada in Full; Out Friday
Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on March 8th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Andalusian atmospheric heavy rock three-piece Santo Rostro will issue their fourth album, Después no habrá nada, on March 10 through Spinda Records, Discos Macarras and LaRubia Producciones. At 34 minutes and five songs, it’s barely as long as the list of links at the bottom of this post, but that’s plenty enough time for the Jaén trio to make their impression in fuzz, space and largesse, crafting a kind of heavy rock that, whether it’s celebrating riffs for crunch’s sake on “Carcasa Digital” or twisting around the more progressive headspins of “Matriz” later on, resounds with persona and purpose alike.
Self-recorded, the album is likewise heavy and movement-based, even in its basic construction; the individual tracks — “Telerañas” (3:50), “Carcasa Digital” (4:29), “Aire” (5:44), “Matriz” (8:09) and the instrumental “Después no habrá nada” (11:52) — being arranged shortest to longest to draw the listener further in as “Carcasa Digital” picks up from the post-grunge melodic noise rock of “Telerañas” to intertwine synth with the fuzzy crunch of (also vocalist) Miguel Ortega‘s guitar and Antonio Gámez‘s bass; Alejandro Galiano‘s snare drum tapping away furiously beneath the keyboard-topped swirl of “Carcasa Digital” before the whole thing shifts into a proggy run of start-stops and sweeps back into the build, ending with more of a tempo push than a swell of volume.
There’s grace here, and the listener is never in doubt Santo Rostro are going to get where they’re going, but the process of how that happens is what makes the record an exciting and grabbing listen, the jabs of keys in “Telerañas” and the beginning there of the almost manic guitar runs runs that typify the album as a whole (or at least as a most), and the sneaky entry of what on many albums would be a culmination-riff after the three-minute mark — it put me in mind of something Genghis Tron might use to make a declaration earlier in their career, but there isn’t much in common between the two bands otherwise, save for a generalization like “they’re intense” — and the trio’s Andalusian-folk-informed semi-psychedelic atmospheres emerging from the physicality of the music itself, angular and immediate in rhythm, but with an overarching flow like some kind of overly complex hyper-run-on sentence that just won’t end and maybe you forgot what you wanted to say when you started it but Santo Rostro still know what they’re doing when they’re spinning circles around the inside of your brain. Dance, baby, dance.
And then doom a bit, because indeed, Después no habrá nada (English: ‘Then there will be nothing’) isn’t screwing around when it comes to heft as one of the tools in its stylistic shed. The first three tracks — what one assumes is side A — drop hints of the largesse to come in “Matriz” and the title-cut, the acoustic guitar that starts “Aire” and remains beneath for the duration, the electrifying surge in the layers of the solo in the song’s second half ascends to its peak, the band exquisitely tapping aspects of regional heavy psych, less garage than Mía Turbia, in which Ortega drums, but certainly aware of the likes of Mind!, Atavismo and Híbrido and the post-Viaje a 800 cohort’s ability to create a flowing current from seemingly hairpin turns. Santo Rostro aren’t nearly as drift-minded or kosmiche as some of those, and they’re not trying to be, but there are shared elements just the same, as “Matriz” begins side B with an immediate run of full synth-complemented fuzz and sprinting progressive heavy.
This out-of-a-cannon madcap sproing is destined to hit a wall, but the infectiousness of Después no habrá nada‘s energy isn’t to be understated as the band’s rhythmic tension is taken in by the listener, turned into a skin-tightening grip as “Matriz” grows more spacious in its chorus, Ortega‘s gruff vocals (yes, in Spanish) echoing over. The bass and guitar foreshadow just after the four-minute mark, but they’re still in full-go mode, and not to be lost in the cacophony is the sense of control on the part of the band holding it all together even when the song itself sounds like it’s struggling to come apart.
You could debate who’s won as the drums crash out at 5:17 and not-just-a-but-the-slower-riff is introduced, taking the clue dropped in “Telerañas” and bringing that righteous nod forward as the foundation for the rest of the track. They set it up in grand style, Galiano keeping time on the crash, Gámez underscoring with warmth the guitar and the organ line that emerges to join the slow march. The ending of “Matriz” is a standout moment that grows noisier and its own kind of frantic in the layering despite the drop in pace, but the shift is intentional and smoothly done as Santo Rostro give themselves an arrival point to go along with all that going.
Of course, they’re not done yet. “Matriz” howls by the time it’s done, the vocals and guitar as stretched out as they’re going to get, and the closer “Después no habrá nada” takes off like nothing ever happened, effectively resetting the pieces on the board for another game as they bounce and careen, build and run through the first couple minutes of the title-track, vague in genre — if some dude was screaming on it circa the three-minute mark, you’d say it sounded like Enslaved, but in reality Santo Rostro aren’t nearly so metal — but right on in affect and, by this time, well established in their doing-their-own-thing ethic.
As noted, “Después no habrá nada” is instrumental, but that aside it accounts for most of what Santo Rostro do throughout the album that shares its name, including the prog-out-into-slowdown at 4:30, the echoing atmospheric lead lines thereafter and the keys bolstering the moment’s impact, a fluid jam proceeding until before seven minutes in the drums break and an acoustic guitar enters to set up the final section, a cosmic payoff that, while keeping the acoustic guitar beneath like in “Matriz,” unfolds with due sense of exhalation. Ortega throws some shred into the fray, but the ending is less about one player than the total immersion crafted by the three of them. It stops, invariably, and hums into a fade, but the acoustic returns for another minute-plus of grows-more-urgent strum before cutting to silence, as though the album could end any other way.
It’s been six years since Santo Rostro issued their third full-length, The Healer, and coming up on 10 since they made their self-titled debut, and while Después no habrá nada carries forward some of the sonic facets and attitude of their prior work, the change from English to Spanish lyrics and titles and the choice to record themselves can only be said to suit them. They make themselves at home in the stormy, jazzy feverishness, and effectively contrast that later on with more straight-ahead groove, furthering the whole-record experience at no cost to the individual tracks in terms of the impression made. Después no habrá nada, like any kind of extreme music or really anything, won’t be universally received, but for those willing to put in the effort to keep up with it, the satisfaction is commensurate.
The album is streaming in its entirety below, followed by some more basic info and the aforementioned barrage of links.
Please enjoy:
‘DESPUÉS NO HABRÁ NADA’ by Santo Rostro. Out 10th March 2023.
PRE-ORDER (10th Feb): Santo Rostro / Discos Macarras / LaRubia Producciones / Spinda Records
Spanish psych-doom rockers SANTO ROSTRO are back in business with their 4th studio album ‘Después no habrá nada’ – to be released on 10th March 2023 via Discos Macarras, LaRubia Producciones & Spinda Records.
Andalusian power trio returns with a dark-psych rock album, with long tracks including complex instrumental developments, processed atmospheres and a dirty sound plenty of echoes, different modulations and occasional synths.
Many things have changed in SANTO ROSTRO since they put out ‘The Healer’ in 2017, and this is obviously reflected in this new album. ‘Después no habrá nada’ is the result of a more mature band, with thousands of kilometers touring both Spain and EU on their back, several TV appearances and a couple of stand-alone video-singles – and everything 100% DIY.
The album was produced by the band itself; then recorded and mixed by Raúl Pérez at La Mina (Spain); and mastered by Mario G. Alberni at Kadifornia Mastering (Spain). Behind the artwork is The Braves Church, based on photographies by Manu Rosaleny.
Digital
300x CD Digipack
150x Black Vinyl
150x Orange Translucent Vinyl
TRACK-LIST:
1. Telarañas
2. Carcasa Digital
3. Aire
4. Matriz
5. Después no habrá nada
SANTO ROSTRO:
Miguel Ortega: guitars
Antonio Gámez: bass, vocals
Alejandro Galiano: drums
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