Granada - "Sincronizado" (Symbol of Domination, 2017)

Band: Granada
Title: Sincronizado
Genre: Thrashcore/Groove Metal
Year: 23rd June 2017
Time: 37 min
Rating: 79/100

"Life is a cycle where we are born and die synchronized with nature, but it is as if we were constantly struggling to break that bond, consumerism and greed blinds us and trasforms us into our worst enemies"

After Ordem Satânica, All My Sins and Gökböri, here you are another band that sung in their not English mother tongue: Granada. From Argentina, they are a prolific band able to release, from their foundation in 2008, even 4 full-lenght albums from 2012 to 2017, included the last one named "Sincronizado". I received it 3 months ago by Aleksey of the Russian label Satanath Records, the parent label of Symbol of Domination (from Belarus) that released this "Sincronizado".


This album will torment your fuckin' ears through 10 songs in which there is a dynamic and inventive thrash metal full of anger able to crush you with a very good alternation between fast and slow tempos (these ones even with arpeggios), showing also some dissonant riffs, often a guitar solo a song also played wth a rocking vibe (like the one in "Solve et Coagula"), the wild and unpredictable drumming of Marcos Edwards, and a singer by name of Guillerme "Guille" Estevez that ranges from evil and disturbed screams (as in "La Serpiente", and it isn't a case considering the title of this song!) to some growls and without forgetting unfrequent clean vocals ("Almas Vendidas"). Besides all this, there is a long instrumental track (almost 5 minutes of lenght) titled "Más allá de la muerte", that ends the album with the two guitarists that here have a lot fun playing many guitar solos while its intro and outro are dominated by a totally delirious piano.

But the inventiveness of Granada is partly due to the fact that they love to mix their thrash metal with various influences mainly coming from punk/hardcore (in fact, their label dub their sound as "thrash metal/hardcore"), groove metal (already listenable in the second mid-tempo track "Sincronizado"...but don't expect the usual boring attempts to clone Pantera!) and, in a less frequent way, death metal (the same growling vocals and some riffs here and there). And you have to combine all this with a certain dark atmosphere, as you can already understand through the same song titles like "Poseso" ("Possessed") and "La Serpiente" ("The Serpent"), but translating these impressions also musically speaking. Consequently, a song like "Poseso" is a notable example of this because of its violence, wickedness and the sick and really possessed vocals by Guillermo. I have to say that just "Poseso" is my favorite song...but shame because my favorite song is only the first one of the album!

So, these are my conclusions: Granada have created an album rich of winning ideas knowing how also to combine an old-school thrash metal approach à la Nuclear Assault with a more modern one à la Machine Head, various influences, some dark feelings, and don't forget a good song more focused on the melodies like "Almas Vendidas". So, if you want an intense but imaginative thrash metal, do a favor for yourself and give a chance to "Sincronizado"...and don't care if you will understand absolutely nothing about the lyrical themes sung in Spanish! And for the skeptics, I suggest to watch the videoclips that Granada shot for the titletrack and "La Serpiente"!

Tracklist:

1 - Poseso
2 - Sincronizado
3 - Mensaje Oculto
4 - Provocación
5 - Solve et Coagula
6 - La cosecha
7 - La serpiente
8 - Almas vendidas
9 - Prohibido por la luz
10 - Más allá de la muerte

Line-up:

Guillermo "Guille" Estevez - vocals/guitars
Manuel "Manolo" Mauriño - guitars
Matias Brandauer - bass
Marcos Edwards - drums

Homepage: http://www.granadametal.com/
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/granadametal
BandCamp: http://granadametal.bandcamp.com/