Escalofrío

Paul Gillman will forever be a pivotal figure in the Venezuelan hard rock and heavy metal scene, having been a founding member of Arkangel, one of the first Latin American bands in the style. Personally, however, I think he released his best work after his departure from that band under his own name, perhaps none better than 1994’s ‘Escalofrío’. The lyrics on this particular album are inspired by Venezuelan folktales and legends. And where most metal bands would go full-on folk metal for such stories, Gillman instead does what he does best here by delivering incredibly powerful heavy metal.

‘Escalofrío’ laid the groundwork for what Gillman would be doing the next few decades. His songwriting partner for ‘Escalofrío’ and its equally good follow-up ‘Cuauthemoc’ is the Argentine-Venezuelan guitarist Facundo Coral. In his own eponymous band, his crushing post-thrash riffs sound a bit too monotonous for my taste, but combined with Gillman’s wide, expressive and powerful vocal range – with slightly more grit than usual to suit the music – it just works wonders. The blend of styles brings the first Fight album to mind, but the result sounds more like an adventurous take on ‘Strange Highways’-era Dio with the theatricality of a Mercyful Fate.

The first proper song on ‘Escalofrío’ – every song comes with an atmospheric spoken intro that provides context – is one of Gillman’s best to date. At eight plus minutes, ‘El Poema Negro’ is the longest song here by quite a margin, but it doesn’t feel a second too long. After a monumental doomy intro, every riff contrasts beautifully with the last, some of them toying interestingly with timing. The “este amor es mi dolor” climax is incredible and features one of Gillman’s best recorded vocal performances to date. Other bookend ‘El Hachador’ is another highly dynamic track, almost thrashy in its aggression, but never losing track of how music and story interact.

‘La Sayona’ starts out sounding like it will be an uptempo metal track, but quickly transforms into something slow, heavy and surprisingly atmospheric. ‘El Tirano Aguirre’ is an epic track that has the impact of its riffs increased by the melancholic melody haunting its chorus and Coral’s surprisingly bluesy solo leading into a dramatic quieter middle section. A bit shorter, but every bit as enjoyable are the triplet-fest of ‘El Silbón’ and the brooding darkness of ‘El Pez Nicolás’. And anyone fearing that Gillman had forgotten his more traditional metal roots should get a kick out of ‘El Carretón’.

After such a thematically strong album, it would be tempting to call the four bonus tracks – all covers, though Gillman participated on the originals of Arkangel’s ‘El Vagón de la Muerte’ and ‘Nada es Eterno’ – an afterthought, but they actually fit alongside the main tracks surprisingly well. The production is really appropriate for this material anyway, Coral’s guitars having an almost Scott Burns-esque low-end punch. All of this contributes to one of the most satisfying albums ever to come out of Latin America. It’s adventurous, but doesn’t stray too far from metal’s original mission of impressing listeners with strong riffs and incredible vocals.

Recommended tracks: ‘El Poema Negro’, ‘El Hachador’, ‘La Sayona’, ‘El Silbón’

Originally written for my Kevy Metal weblog

It’s just me or there’s too much mainstream stuff in metaland these days? I mean, it’s not a secret back in the good ol’days it was all about underground acts, labels, gigs and manufacture, uh? Perhaps I’m being nostalgic, but I remain looking for rare non-shitty obscure projects from around the globe 24/7; otherwise, domination cannot be complete.

Scanning and skimming the web as I do, it’s common to find plenty of worthless releases, but every now and then you run into outstanding ones that make you hold some hope. That’s exactly the way it happened to me with Gillman’s “Escalofrío”. Being Spanish for shudder, this is an unusual record from Venezuela, made back in early 90’s. Apparently, Gillman, leaded by front man Paul Gillman (surprise, surprise…!), is one of the most renowned heavy metal bands in that part of South America and have been around for almost three decades now. Shame on me, I was completely unaware of their existence until recently.

Why unusual? Well, “Escalofrío” is a thematic album based on traditional legends, tales and myths of Venezuela, it goes for a rather peculiar tracks structure and it has a couple features that make it unique. First, lots of research were done to gather all the necessary info to create the literary background on the topic. Many of the stories told here date back to colonial times, and belong to the people’s folklore, so I imagine bringing together some reliable data should have been a lot of work. Don’t you believe me? Take a look to the bibliography these guys DID use here and then we can talk. Second, based on the mentioned above, narrator Porfirio Torres, who’s a famous radio announcer in Caracas, introduces every single song, with a short intervention in which he provides some background on the particular tale the song’s gonna be about.

This results in a intro-song structure all across the album plus an intro and a finale in the beginning and in the end of the conceptual part. Eight stories in total, yet as if that were not enough, there are also four cover songs to be checked after the history and literature lesson. Far from being boring or repetitive, that’s actually a good way to keep the listener’s interest on, and to contextualize us before going straight to the point, the songs themselves.

Musically, I’d say this is a very traditional heavy metal album, except its style is not precisely according to its time. I mean, despites the groove metal hints every now and then, riffs and drum beats are WAY too 80’s: heavy, speed and some kind of thing you could call thrash stuff. Quite pleasant if you ask me… also quite average. Are you familiar with old Spanish acts such as Baron Rojo or Ángeles del Infierno? Expect pretty much the same rough style. Lead guitar player Facundo Coral had his moments in this one.

Now regarding the vocals… that’s a tough one. It’s impossible to listen to a band named after its vocalist and front man and not to pay SPECIAL attention to his work. It’s also impossible to be a front man and to name your band after yourself, singing lamely, right? My point is good ol’Paul CAN sing, that’s for sure. His voice is melodic, strong, well sustained and he plays with it well enough so that sounds kind of aggressive from time to time. Lyrics are not exactly brilliant, though.

It’s not they’re bad, just they repeat almost literally what the narrator had said before, missing the chance to go for a more metaphoric, symbolic or even poetic writing. For fuck’s sake, they had already given all the background we needed, then why not do something, ANYTHING a lil’bit more creative? Take “El Tirano Aguirre” (Aguirre the Tyrant) and its narrated intro for instance, and let me translate for you:

Intro:
“Aguirre the Tyrant went ashore with his crew in Margarita, Paraguachí port. Using the excuse of being lost, he asked for protection which was given directly by the governor himself. He was provided with everything the town had, and all his men were healed. When Aguirre and henchmen were fully recovered, they charged against all those who had helped them before, mercilessly killing and raping…”

Song:
“They say Aguirre the Tyrant went ashore in Margarita. He pretended to be good. What a surprise he’d give! He stole, raped, burnt and killed all the citizens…”

Such a pity… especially ‘cause the song is pretty good actually. Remarkably in this one you can appreciate Gillman’s prominent voice, good song writing and an excellent guitar work. Furthermore, this happens again and again with all the stories.

Notwithstanding the flaws, I still consider this to be a mustlistento within the vast South American list of metal albums. It’s worth both as a record and as an accessible approach to a selected compilation of traditional legends. Of course, some literacy, as well as language skills are needed to fully appreciate that. By the way, I just read “Escalofrío Vol. II” will come soon in 2012!

—Originally written for www.globaldomination.se

This is Paul Gillman's most acknowledged album. It is a conceptual work which deals with the topic of "horror" and "dark legends" from Venezuela, and the lyrics are all (except one cover) in Spanish language. Each song corresponds to a particular tale or legend from Venezuela's folklore, and it is preceeded by an oral narration of the story. Especially in this album I consider the lyrics a fundamental part, so, as I describe the music, I'll also deal with the lyrical concept.

Before analyzing the main songs, I'll say that the music that we find here is classic heavy metal from the beginning of the 90's, this his, Heavy metal with riffs a bit "heavier" than 80's metal (A kind of Pantera's late works or Judas' in Painkiller and Jugulator) We can also note that the dark atmosphere of the songs reminds us to King Diamond. Paul Gillman's voice here is agressive rather than melodic, in the style of Rob Halford or Juan Gallardo (Angeles del Infierno). So now let's go with the analysis.

Apart from the correspondant intros, "El Poema Negro" (The Black Poem) is the 1st song. It begins with some very powerful riffs and agressive drums. The song sounds dark, mysterious, and the lyrics also contribute to it. (It is about the story of a man whose girlfriend, before dying, asked him to go into the cemetary to rescue her skull, to be forever together). There are no keyboards and in fact they are not neccessary, for the rest of the instruments are enough to create the "horror-movie atmosphere". By the middle of the song the music stops and the narration of the poem continues, just to give way again to the music. This is my favourite song of the album and maybe of all Gillman's discography.

"La Sayona" (The cloaked woman) is a bit slower but it also recreates the dark atmosphere. This patterns will be more or less repeated throughout the whole album, so from now onwards I won't repeat the dark and mysterious ambient of the songs.

"El Tirano Aguirre" (Aguirre the tyrant) is a mid-tempo song with very powerful riffs which can remind to Metallica's Black Album. By the middle of the song it becomes slower and Gillman's shows his vocal power with some hyper-high screams that make of this song a reference in his career. Finally it comes the tempo of the beginning of the song.

"El Carreton" (The Cart) is the fastest song. It's a bit more simmilar to 80's metal and to Gillman's old stuff in general. The lyrics deal with the Black Death Epidemy in Venezuela some centuries ago.

"El Hachador" (The Axeman) is one of the Highlights. It remainds to Metallica's thrashy songs, a bit like "blackened", especially the guitar riffs, which I think are the best guitar work of the album. Here again, gillman shows his vocal energy with many high-pitched screams, and he tells the story of an errant axeman who attacks those people who go hunting "not for food, but for ambition"

This are not all the songs of the album, I have ommitted some of them because I did not want to repeat the same patterns on and on. Anyway, all the songs that we find here are worth listening!!

And at the end of the album we are gifted with 4 covers: "El vagon de la muerte" (The coach of death) and "Nada es eterno" (Nothing is forever), which are Arkangel's songs (Arkangel is Gillman's former band), Black Sabbath's "Children of the grave" and Baron Rojo's "Resistiré" (I will resist). The 2 arkangel's songs are improved, they sound heavier and with a better production, and Sabbath's and Baron Rojo's covers are also a good and interesting work!

So as a conclusion, I can say that this album combines the strength of 90's heavy metal with the dark and grim atmospheres of bands like King Diamond. If you are also interested in dark tales and folklore and you don't mind the language of the album (or if you are an Spanish-speaker), you can really enjoy this work!!