El Reloj

On the subject of obscure heavy metal bands from the 80’s that began their careers as obscure prog rock bands from the 70’s, there’s barely enough source material to produce a high school essay. Aside from Germany’s Faithful Breath, the only other group of which I’m aware is Argentina’s El Reloj. While “The Clock” is a cruelly ironic name for a band to which time has not been particularly kind, the recorded material they’ve occasionally produced over their rocky four-decade career is worth exploring, particularly this low-budget yet unusually heavy self-titled debut.

The only other Argentinean progressive band I’m even barely familiar with is Crucis, so I don’t consider myself a worthy ambassador to the country’s musical culture or anything, but I was still for some reason expecting more Spanish-influenced acoustic guitar elements than the harder rhythm and blues of which El Reloj heavily consists. A subtle jazz influence, singer Eduardo Frezza’s higher-pitched timbre, and the band’s fondness for harmonized vocals actually brings this more in line with some of the Italian bands of the early 70’s in general tone (the Bernardo Lanzetti era of PFM comes to mind,), but with most of the emphasis shifted away from the florid keyboard layers and neoclassical interludes, instead focusing on the dual guitars and heavy percussion. This is entirely unlike Crucis or the Italian bands, few of which keep their keys as far in the background as El Reloj does, and it’s one of their most positive distinguishing qualities.

I wouldn’t quite go so far as to call this early material heavy metal; but unlike Faithful Breath’s gradual metamorphosis, it should have come as no surprise to El Reloj’s fans when they eventually developed a power metal approach in the decades to come. High energy tempos, forceful percussion (featuring some pretty sick double bass accents for the mid-70’s), harmonized chromatic guitar and bass countermelodies, crunchy power chords, the crude funereal cover art; this stuff is pretty ahead of its time. The blues/rock ‘n’ roll roots are always visible, but the manic energy and attitude of heavy metal are there too. Save the dissonant introduction and the irregular keyboard segue, most of the songs are built from the above description. The reissues pad the otherwise short track list with some equally intensive early singles, but I don’t mind a one-dimensional record if the band is still sounding good; it’s a case of consistency, not monotony.

These guys at this point are like 70-80% of the way there; had this been recorded with stronger, more distorted guitar tones instead of the flimsy overdrive their reign would be indisputable. As is, El Reloj is a niche album by a niche band, but those in the market for historical Spanish-language heavy rock will surely enjoy it.