Demo

The first demo of the Mexican band Hunbatz reminds the listener on some bad examples of the black metal scene; especially those with too much keyboard and awful vocals. These are the two aspects this piece of music suffers from. Luckily, the total share of these two is not too graven to have a permanent impact and as such the band is able to move beyond them at times.

Take the opener for instance: the Italian band Graveworn would be one of the references, but keeping this aside, the way the melodies unfold themselves and the dynamics in the composition are simply too generic really fascinate. It is a solid performance, but certainly nothing more. In some respect the band continues on this path: melodic black metal with some death metal influences, two types of vocals – growling and croaking –, some vague keyboard textures at times and a pretty decent role of the drums. Hunbatz attempted to approach the music from a broader perspective. Maybe this is the reason blasts and surprisingly aggressive parts are accompanied by comparatively calm ones. Infernal Black Metal – nomen est omen! –, the third track, shows this different facet, while the last track seems to be a take from a rehearsal recording and comes in a quite raw and noisy fashion.

As such, if you sum everything up, then you might describe the demo as listenable, but without a clear direction. Some ideas had been lain out, but what the band actually wants to prove here or where they want to go with the band remains hidden. Recommended to fans of melodic black metal whose preferences include death metal influences as well as fast/aggressive parts as well.