Niño gigante

Ekhymosis was a band in which the now-famous Juanes used to sing. It's too bad that it's only remembered for that, and for being a shitty pop-rock band during the late 90's; since this album is very good.

The first thing you notice when you start listening is that the production is good, specially compared to other Colombian band's at the time (Kraken's eponymous comes to mind). The guitars sound a little bit weird, but every instrument, even the bass, can be heard without effort. Maybe the only problem with the production is that the album's overall volume is really low, but you can solve that by...Turning the volume knob up!

The music is great, there are plenty of killer leads and riffs, but the reason why I couldn't give this a higher score is that some of the tracks tend to plod. And we have the weak 'Solo' (Alone). Which starts with a piano, and Juan's vocals which sound like a fucked up 'The Sane Asylum', and a pointless solo, which even the pop-rock remake beats. I just can't hate it completely, but it's the kind of stuff that holds this album down, that some songs tend to drag or just be sub-par compared to the good tracks. 'Limpios de Fe' (Clean of Faith) or 'El Llanto Olvidado' (The Forgotten Cry) do nothing for me either.

But then we have 'Un Segundo de Paz' (A Second of Peace), which is very catchy, 'Permanezco Vivo' (I Stay Alive) which has a...I don't know, Funk-Metal vibe to it, and a fucking awesome chorus. There's also 'Depresion' (Depretion) which is really heavy. And the best song, THE TITLE TRACK! 'Niño Gigante' (Giant Child), which manages to do what this album does better, which is combining melodic leads with heavy thrash riffs, and some really pissed off vocals.

The problem is when some songs try to get long, and this thing just doesn't work that way, Ekhymosis does better when making 3-minute thrash anthems with catchy riffs and choruses. But I'd recommend it, it's a very good listen, it just could have been better!