Mientras las nubes ciegan la luna...

There's one thing about folk metal that us metal fans rarely regard: we tend to hear the Euro side of things way too much. Most folk metal is based in Scandinavian mythology and traditional European folk melodies, and all North American culture pretty much just rips off European culture anyways so by extension all the folk metal my homeland writes tends to fall within the same paradigm. There are a world of other cultural myths to be explored, and with them come a completely different musical ideas as well, and it'd be nice to hear some other cultural takes on folk metal. Oscuro Mito are an interesting band for this reason: I've never heard South American folk metal, much less one that actually integrates native folk instruments and uses them as a feature in certain parts of songs. Already this gives the band a distinct aesthetic, and allows them to actually stand a little bit outside the box and not resort to the tropes that usually plague the sea of Ensiferum/Korpiklaani rip-off clones in Euro-style folk metal. Even when this jigs, it jigs in an unusual way that's quite engaging to listen to.

I had the fortune of conversing briefly with guitarist Andres Costas in preparation for this review, and asked him a bit about what the influences and inspirations behind the music and lyrics on this demo were. Thankfully, since he was nice enough to provide me with such things in good detail, I have a direct and (hopefully) accurate representation of the sounds that Mientras las Nubes Ciegan la Luna is supposed to draw from and emulate. I'm partially integrating the content of our conversation into this review, trying to take all of the important details out of it but still retain the flow of the text, so this is a combination review/interview of sorts. As this is a demo of a band just starting out, I felt a little bit more detailed background context was somewhat necessary and luckily, I got that shit straight from the source.

The main influences on the music itself range from folk/black such as Windir and Himinbjorg, with Bathory also being cited as a significant well of inspiration (as should be the case for any folk metal band, really). Other favorite bands among the members are Dimmu Borgir, Hate Forest, Immortal and In Extremo. This is perhaps how the black/folk categorization comes into play, and a good chunk of this demo (most, the opening track) does draw from the influences mentioned above. However, there's a couple of additional twists on the album that give it a very unique flavor. The integration of traditional South American folk music with black metal (and a bit of a hidden heavy metal influence as well) makes the album very initially playful, but with somewhat sinister motives underneath. This album's lyrics, while not without their share of the standard "dark and mysterious" imagery common to metal, draw from Inca, Ayamara and Tihuanacota cultures mixing local word-of-mouth folk tales with a bit of the band's own exaggeration and flair. They weave stories about: shadowy figures in the trees lurking in old, rural Bolivian towns at night with only the moonlight to guide you, a masked man condemned for his sins to dance until he dies for a sacrifice, and a celebration of spiritual rebirth in the new year by indigenous Aymara people in the three tracks on this demo respectively. The pacing of the album reflects these themes in a lot of places. "Danza en Trance" moves in a very slow, fluent sort of way that manages to make give the song an ominous atmosphere you don't usually find in a fun song like this. Rotting Christ's Non Serviam is perhaps one album that I could compare this demo to rhythmically. The riffs and drums (especially on the last two tracks) move together in a very elegant, foreboding manner much like the album of those notorious Greeks, but that doesn't mean this sounds much like Hellenic black metal. In fact, a lot of the riffs on this album that aren't clearly black metal influenced actually sound fairly similar to tried-and-true 80's heavy metal riffs, but either way they end up being a good way to build into the black metal sections. The native instruments are quite effective at bridging any gaps that would otherwise occur in the songwriting, and the harmonious mystique that the melodies have make this brief demo sound much more well-rounded.

"Murmullos de Espectros" plays around with some almost Metallica-esque riffs mixed in with a bit of tremolo riffing after acoustic buildup, and it's a pretty good introductory song overall. The only thing about it that gets me is the harsh vocals over the clean guitar segment, as harsh vocals always kind of grate against a non-distorted guitar for me. This is easily the weakest moment on the album, though. Maybe it's for the best that they put it right at the beginning, because the rest of the album utilizes the harsh vocals well and even showcases some interesting cleans. This only leads me to wonder, though--why didn't they just sing over the clean intro? Anyways, "Danza en Trance" is the most folk metal-oriented of the three, but as previously mentioned there's a unique, almost tribal sort of twist on this song that makes it stand out from a stereotypical folk metal jig. "Luz Naciente" has the same sort of feel rhythmically, but uses more black metal-focused marching riffs to drive the song. The catchy melody in this song is delivered entirely through the native instruments--did I mention how lovely these things sound? Granted, I probably wouldn't want this band to use them any more frequently than they're doing here, but they serve as a very nice contrast to a primarily riff-based framework. The combination of what appear to be woodwinds and other stringed instruments (damn, really wish I had asked him about the specific instruments used now) Is quite well-balanced with the less melodic black metal in this track. Each song showcases different elements of Oscuro Mito's sound, yet they come together cohesively.

The only real downside to the ambition in this demo is that it perhaps causes the songs to jump to new ideas too quickly, not really letting some good ideas set in and unfold to their fullest potential. This is only a 13-minute demo, however, and this should probably be kept in mind as the band plans to record a full-length album sometime in the near but not concretely-defined future. This is worth a couple genuine listens for any fan of folk metal who's looking for something a little bit different but still remains strongly tied to the realm of folk metal Bathory pioneered long ago. It's definitely a promising, surprising listen, albeit still just a preview of what's to come. I'm not going to claim myself a full-blown fan of this band yet, I definitely will be if they expand upon their sound in the right ways in future releases.