Machetazo - Ruin
For whatever reason, whenever the conversation about which Grindcore bands are still worth a piss arises, I always seem to forget about Spain’s Machetazo. They’ve been at it forever, I own many of their releases, they’ve done splits with the equally unforgettable Cianide and Ribspreader, oh… and some guy named Chris Reifert designed their logo. Yet, like some kind of Alzheimer’s patient, they somehow slip my mind completely. It could be an intentional subconscious move on my part. Maybe I do it so that every time I hear something new from the duo, I’ll have that, “HOLY FUCK! THESE GUYS ARE GOOD!” moment of surprise? It’s either that or decades of incarnated solvent abuse, but whatever the case, HOLY FUCK! THESE GUYS ARE GOOD! From the blast furnace and bulldozer bass of “Horca” to the Old School Death Metal with machinegun sneak attack on “Tetrico,” this listener is meathooked to his stereo with a jaw dropped to the floor like he didn’t see it coming. In all seriousness, I don’t remember Machetazo (Spanish for “machete”) being this heavy. I remember fast, furious, filthy, and fixated on Horror, but with Ruin they’ve achieved the kind of unbridled organic brutality you just don’t hear that often anymore. Dopi’s guttural grunt sounds particularly menacing, and while my Spanish is a little rusty, I’d say he’s using actual lyrics this time. And the riffs! God damn! Papi, I did not know you could do it like that! I don’t have enough space to highlight all of these monsters, but let’s just say the buzzsaw hooks on “Espectro,” “Fauces,” “Tinieblas/Ritual,” and “Desfigurado” made me want to dust off the old 6-string, tune it to Z-minor, and start violently molesting it again. Convincingly flaunting the gamut from Death to Grind to Crust to Thrash to Doom, all that keeps Ruin from perfection is a dreadfully uneventful 8-minute outro/instrumental, and a few… ahem… slightly borrowed arrangements (is “revientas” Spanish for “tormentor”?). Nevertheless, I don’t think I’ll be forgetting these dos hombres ever again.
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