Antes de tiempo

Antes de Tiempo (spanish expression that can be applied to “Arriving Early”/"Early" but also means “Before Time”, and there you have the reason of the cover with gears, clockworks and clocks) is the second studio attempt from argentinian metal band Lörihen.

Sadly, this album brings almost anything fresh as it is mainly composed of covers and fillers. I think this was indeed released a little too early (quoting the album’s title) considering their first studio work showed they had a lot to improve and evolve before embarking in covers and such.

Lörihen features nine tracks, being the first 'song' a ridiculous and offensive 22 seconds (yes 22!) piece of nonsensical low electronic noise and a clock that triggers an alarm. So, speaking seriously, there are only eight effective tracks. It’s worth mentioning that the album’s length barely surpasses the thirty minutes mark.

And what is the most disappointing thing of these eight songs? That only two of them are actually new! The last one (“Utopia”) is the english version of the song featured in the first album but it’s completely forgettable and bland. Unlike its original in spanish, this one truly sounds like generic italian power metal with a horrible english pronunciation. I’m not the best at english either, hence I prefer that, if they one is going to sing, it’s better to do it in your own language or at least learn the other before trying. The musicianship is great (listen to the solos or the riffs at the beginning and you might understand why Utopía is such a great song in spanish) and it increases the sadness to see it wasted in the longest yet the most uninteresting song of the album. Sometimes it feels so generic it hurts. Oh, and it’s not the longest really. Times can be deceiving as the song clocks at 4 minutes and something. Then you have to tolerate some silence till a completely stupid album ending that only increases the disappointment.

Going back to the good, because there is some of that or the score would’ve been even lower, “Segundo Acto” and “Adonde van tus sueños” (the two new songs) are superb and sound fresh, cool and damn catchy. They are mainly flawless and last what they need to, not more or less.

Since the covers carry their own musical styles (and Lörihen mainly respected them), the trademark of the band in terms of guitars, bass, keyboards and vocals usage can only be found in these two songs and the english version of Utopía. The typical power metal drumming is present of course but the guitars and bass have a distinguishable melodic approach that screams for sing-along choruses. This might or might not be bad, depending on how you look at it.

As a matter of personal taste, if only they could’ve done an entire album with similar songs…

The remaining tracks are various covers of irregular quality. We have “Slave to the Grind” from Skid Row, which suffers the same problem as Utopia and the other two songs in english (“I want it all” from Queen and “Holier than thou” from Metallica, both equally terrible) because they feel uninteresting and forced, although the pronunciation is a bit better in “I want it all”, making it the best of the set.

Another high point is Javier Barrozo’s voice, which adds a lot of power and emotion to the songs and achieves different vocals ranges with ease. It makes the whole listening experience more rewarding.

The production sounds cleaner than their previous album and that should be thanked.

The covers in spanish balance things a bit. The regular and quite repetitive “Asesinos” (from Rata Blanca) is countered by the masterful, violent, great, incredible “Cautivo del Sistema”, a cover from the mythical band V8, the kings and lords of metal in Argentina, creators of some of the most important songs. This one is not exception. Now it’s time to go mad: the cover not only owns and totally fucking destroys everything (courtesy of its original version) but also sounds faster, deadlier and cleaner thanks to the aforementioned production! Great addition.

Lyrics are fine (except for the points mentioned above) as well as the cover art and the general graphics of the booklet, which can be deployed as a triptych.

All in all, I expected a truly full studio album but, well, things got fixed with Paradigma.

This is only worth getting if you can find it at a low price, otherwise, forget it. It’s truly disappointing.

Highlights: Segundo Acto, Adonde van tus sueños, Cautivo del Sistema.