Mientras las nubes ciegan la luna...

From the Bolivian lands emerges a band called Oscuro Mito. This band is formed by five members being the guitar player Andreas Costas the only one with a previous known experience. Oscuro Mito started its career sevens years ago, so it’s clear that they have taken a long time to release their first demo. This first effort consists of no more than three songs and their style can be defined as folk black metal.

Before I listened to the demo for the first time, I found especially interesting that the lyrics are based on the Inca and Aymara cultures and sang in Spanish. I have nothing against the bands that sing in English and choose to write lyrics about other cultures, specially the overused Viking/Scandinavian theme. But it has more sense and coherence when a South American band decides to explore its rich and ancestral culture, and tries to represent their legends and traditions through black metal. Another interesting point is that they try to introduce actual folk instruments in their music, trying to achieve a balanced mixture between metal and traditional music.

As I have mentioned before this demo, which is entitled “Mientras las Nubes Ciegan la Luna” (“When the Clouds Blind the Moon” in English), has only three songs which are not long at all taking into account black metal´s standards. Nevertheless, this short duration doesn’t prevent this demo of having some interesting ideas to offer. The first song is entitled “Murmullos de Espectros”, which begins with a nice folk melody and it’s closely followed by the first raspy vocals, which suddenly turn into a more death metal growls when the guitars and drums enter. Anyway, Fernando combines both types of vocals with a remarkable consistency during the song. The tempo is not particularly fast, as they combine mid paced sections with slower and faster ones. The sound is surprisingly good for being a demo, which helps to distinguish each instrument.

“Dance en Trance” begins with the inclusion of another folk instrument which enhances the tribal aspect of Oscuro Mito’s music. The song has clearly a mid paced tempo which shows that this band prefers not to overuse the typically black metal fast drums. Another interesting aspect is the inclusion of a chorus with clean vocals, which is quite usual in the bands who try to enhance the pagan spirit of their music. Oscuro Mito surely knows how to add variety to their songs with the inclusion of folk sections, using instruments like flutes and acoustic guitars, among others. I especially like how they try to introduce folk melodies in the metal sections, in contrast to the bands that only use the folk instruments in the instrumentals and intros of their albums.

“Luz Naciente” is the closing track of this short demo with an initial distorted guitar accompanied by the full hatred vocals of Fernando. This last track is another mid-tempo song, where the addition of more folk instruments enriches once again the composition, it also reinforces the lyrical concept of the band. Andreas Costas and Joel Nogales do a quite solid work during the three songs. Apart from the typical riffs they usually try to add a solo in each song which is quite remarkable too.

In conclusion, all I can say about this demo is that is a very promising beginning for Oscuro Mito. The production is quite good and the band really knows how to combine folk and black metal, giving us the impression that they really love both styles. Related to this, I would like to mention Armin Villca’s excellent work with the folk instruments. Personally, I would add a higher variety to the drum patterns, which on the other hand are quite solid. In relation to production, I would try to refine the guitars sound in the solos. Anyway, the music is quite good and a future full-length should release all the potential of this band.