Estado de podredumbre

Among the plethora of bands that sparked the flame of Argentinian extreme metal there were a few that happened to be at the right place and time to make a lasting impression and set the founding stones for the local scene, which would continue to steadily grow even though many of its precursors couldn’t manage to keep going forward. One of such bands was Escabios, who along with bands like Exterminio, Gastre and Vibrión, spearheaded the extreme metal scene back in the early nineties with a couple of demos and two full lengths.

Estado de podredumbre, their second demo, was not a death metal release in the strict sense of the word. Let’s say you have this big cauldron and you throw in the sound of early Slayer, Venom and Celtic Frost, along with a vocalist with a gruff but goofy voice, and you pretty much get the idea of what this demo is about. It was more of a ''proto-extreme metal'' kind of release, so you get a lot of speed and thrash metal riffs, check ''Aniquilar'' or the title track, coupled with Alberto Pastor’s gravelly bellows. It’s not death/thrash in the strict sense of the word, the sound here is much closer to the aforementioned bands, but they had the right ideas and they’d keep developing this sound in subsequent releases.

The production is surprisingly quite clear, considering the nature of the music and where it hailed from. It’s not the best, mind you, the music is enveloped in this 'demo aura', but again, there were far worse cases than what you get with this release. The volume of the final mix is a hit and miss affair with many demos of this nature, but it remains steady throughout the entire release, you can clearly hear all instruments; the drums in particular sound really good, and add a lot to the heaviness of the music in here.

Estado de podredumbre is not much about the originality or the prowess of its musicians. Rather, it’s a well accomplished demo of very heavy speed/thrash metal that, along with a couple of other bands managed to spread the germ of extreme metal in these lands. Escabios would continue to develop a proper death/thrash sound in their following two full lengths, they even managed to get signed on to Roadrunner Records for their swansong Altering the Future, before calling it a day. If you’re itching for some rather obscure metal in the vein of early Slayer and Celtic Frost, Estado de podredumbre is worth checking out, not only for its historical value, but also for the quality of the music on it.