I just finished reviewing that cool Haemorrhage collection on Power It Up and now I have another excellent Spanish band doing a similar release. This Cd holds tracks taken from 6 years from Machetazo‘s tormented existance (1998-2004) of Eps and singles. There is not a big advancement between the various tracks that I can perceive, at least not as evident as on the full lengths, but this is a real good complement to the Razorback albums: get them all and this, and you have every Machetazo track released thus far, including five killer covers by great bands like Massacre, Repulsion, Venom, Carcass and Impetigo (plus sadly, two covers by the terribly faggot shit bands that are Black Sabbath and… sigh… Saint Vitus – oh my shit, you read it well it’s not a joke – Saint Vitus). All of these tracks have be a remastered for the occasion, but luckily the sound has been preserved thick and grisly raw, not polished at all. Whew.

If the layout generally looks better than the Haemorrhage haematology, there is one big problem with this collection compared to that one, and it’s that there are no liner notes AT ALL. Just the release covers, one per page. Tsk tsk. Also there is a nice collage of posters inside, but images tend to become too small to read all crammed in one fold. I guess the general item arrangement could have been studied better (what about a folding booklet that opens like a poster?).

None of this however compromises the fact that the songs are killer. If you know Machetazo you know they’re no Insidious Decrepancy (just to say a fag band) sissies. Real raw – almost punkish – grooves, roaring vocals, grime encrusted chords – all influenced by the old school feel of all the bands covered here. There is surely some Repulsion rawness, some heavy Massacre riffing, and some of Impetigo‘s old school grinding style. Of corpse, none of this is extremely advanced. They stick to they right riff and go for the throat, and that’s all we need. And the intros are just so nice. Old classic horror movie, not Hollywood blockbusters.

Musically all of this is a must have, but the packaging could have definitely been somewhat better.