[Cover art by Made In Darkness]
Chile’s Trastorned can be counted among the many acts that take their sweet time getting music out to the (relative) masses. They formed way back in 2009, but after years of short demos, singles, and a Spinal Tap-rate of drummer turnover, they’re finally getting a proper record released. All that time seems to have been worth it, because debut full length Into the Void is both a wicked fun slab of (slightly) blackened thrash and yet another entry into a thriving scene in Santiago.
Opener “Witch Hunt” gets a big point across immediately. The rolling drum fills and punchy thrash give it a Bay Area vibe, but when it drops in the ascending tremolo passages it’s more like Darkness Descends spliced with a touch of The Nocturnal Silence (while the bursts of shredding bass are both timely and awesome). “Black Fire,” meanwhile, is just rickety enough in its most intense moments that the total pit-ready stuff really stands out, and ought to create visions of The Scott Stomp for Anthrax fans. Most tunes bring this relative bit of range, but it all hits another level when Trastorned really goes for it, as with the three-part harmonies in “Insanity” or lengthy solo section of “Miasma of Death.”
Into the Void isn’t without a few setbacks, however. There’s no reason for an album that isn’t even a half hour long to have a four-minute interlude, and sometimes the band bites off a bit more than they can chew in the songwriting department. The title track, for example, crams more ideas than make sense into a barely three-minute package, but even if that sudden trill-fest doesn’t quite match the moshy riffs or more brutal thrash passages, it’s all really cool on its own.
Besides, anything Trastorned occasionally lacks in songcraft they more than make up for with fire and fervor. This includes those fiery leads and nutty (percussive!) bass playing, but is topped by vocalist Felipe “Fist Banger” Lonza, who throws all caution to the wind with his ESL pronunciations and just belts out all his lines with maniacal intensity. One description of his approach might be: a hoarse Russ Anderson screaming his brains out under a Hell Awaits level of reverb. Another would simply be: FUN.
And isn’t that really the point of this kind of retro metal anyway? Bring the enthusiasm and chops and everything else will fall in line. For the most part, that approach works like gangbusters on Into the Void. The lads in Trastorned clearly feel this stuff deep in their bones, and any like minded skeletons ought to quickly pick up on what they’re putting down.
