Bestia oculta

Originally released in September 2022, the debut LP from this Chilean speed metal powerhouse sees an international release on Trauma Records this month. ‘Bestia Occulta’ dispenses with any self-conscious navel gazing. Completely untroubled by whether it meets some contrived quota of credibility, this is nothing more nor less than an unapologetic blast of raw heavy metal energy that ruthlessly invades the listener’s ears warts and all.

Letalis’s delivery is decidedly and authentically DIY. The production is rough yet immersive, as if we are witnessing a spellbindingly tight live performance. Crisp and clear drums blitz by with unadulterated speed and urgency, offering a performance as charismatic as it is technically precise, leaving no room for unnecessary ornamentation. Dual guitars dominate the foreground of the mix with a sharp, choppy tone ideally suited to maintaining the unbridled barrage of power straddling this album. Underpinning this is a relentless metallic gallop of thundering bass lines, easily cutting through the mix, bolstering the overexcited guitars or else offering deviant licks and trills at key junctures.

Jacqueline Jara’s bombastic vocal performance weaves its way between the dense onslaught of hyper fast lead guitar work and chugging speed thrills. Her voice apes the outrageous theatre of 80s speed metal of old, but it is just as happy articulating throaty punk barks as it is banshee wails and everything in between, leaving plenty of room for subtle melodic inflections by way of contrast to the moments of heightened intensity.

All this makes for a truly ridiculous experience. Across its nearly forty minute runtime the tempo barely drops below 150bpm. The riffs maintain a fraught tension diluted only by their profound sense of purpose. Brief solos serve as signifiers of increasing dramatic stakes over idle showboating (although the chops are well and truly present here). Equally Jara’s vocals rarely let up, but her voice proves more than up to the challenge of providing some diversity, offering a tone, pitch, and intensity suited to each moment even within such a densely packed landscape.

‘Bestia Occulta’, for all its theatre, heroism, bombast, its operatic scope, is still an intimate work. It explicitly positions itself as “of” the underground, both in the rough-and-ready presentation and the completely unvarnished approach to composition. Each atomised moment may deal in pure adrenaline, power, will, but there is a more measured, macro intent guiding the hand of Letalis across this album. It overcomes whatever shortcomings it may have in terms of pacing and execution through sheer enthusiasm, the joy taken in the craft. It comes from a place of such blatant honesty that it is hard not to get carried away in the total joy on offer here. Each individual performance warrants special mention, but equally they all contribute to an experience that is more than the sum of these parts. Once again Chile is giving the rest of the metal world a run for its money in the metal world, a nation that shows no signs of letting up in this regard any time soon.

Originally published at Hate Meditations