Desear un funeral

Without a doubt, Transmetal's brand of extreme metal was very influential to the whole Mexican scene it its day, but one has to wonder what would have transpired to them if they had counted with much better production for their early output. The attitude's there, the riffs are kinda there, the quality cover artworks are definitely there… they had their aesthetics pinned down like pros. Musically, they weren't that impressive compared to many acts of the then current international scene, perhaps not even the sole Latin American scene, with guys like Sarcofago, Sepultura or the more experimental Chilean act Dorso releasing outstanding works in 1989 and before, but still, for the limited reaches and resources of the then nascent Mexican extreme metal scene, these guys were doing marvels.

Desear un Funeral (To Crave for a Funeral) constitutes a carbon-copy (of if you wish to sound more Mexican, a “cabrón copy”) of their debut's sound, that being a dirty, blasphemous recipe for speed metal with the intent to sound like primeval deathrash. Like I said, there were already plenty of thrash metal acts elsewhere with more extreme traits, and Transmetal's style is closer to early Venom or Hellhammer than to something contemporary and decidedly more technical, intense and ferocious, like Num Skull, Incubus or Sadus. Is no surprise that future editions of their 28-minute long, 1988 debut, Muerto en la Cruz have this 15-minute EP attached as a bonus, as both are stylistically equal to one another. The same grainy and rudimentary production with muffled drums of their debut was carried over here, with a tiny upgrade in the vocals, now having less echo than before. Their rhythmically monotonic style doesn't help them much, while at the same time, isn't that hurt by the production, as one would expect this type of proto-extreme metal to be actually enhanced by flawed production values that amplifies its dirtiness. Still… less dirty would positively make this sound more professional.

This short EP starts with “El Enterrador” (The Undertaker), featuring a pretty neat doomy intro/build up that lasts a whole minute. After that, it becomes a solid mid-pace thrasher, featuring a squeaky brief guitar solo around the 2:45 minute mark. A tad too simple, but enjoyable. “Tiburón de Metal” (Metal Shark) has faster picked riffs, and a faster rhythmic section, recalling early Exciter or Razor, only with Spanish lyrics uttered by Alberto Pimentel, with his distinct vocal style, which I call, “drunk grunts”. The guy sounds like he's attempting death grunts after drinking half a bottle of tequila, but ends up middle ground between a Cronos tribute and a Chris Reifert impersonation... and that's a compliment, if you were wondering. Again, a solid track, but even plainer than the opener. It is followed by a pretty good cover of the (themselves underrated) Frenchmen Killers, their own namesake tune in fact, albeit translated into Spanish. I wouldn't say Transmetal's version is better, but certainly is much heavier and darker that the original and actually constitutes my favorite track on this EP. It concludes with the thrashiest piece, “Regalo de Satanás” (Satan’s Gift), a fast number that suddenly hits a Slayer-esque ominous breakdown in the middle before yet another squeaky solo and again regains speed to conclude.

This one's definitely for collector's only, as you can nowadays get it with the CD of their debut in one package, and by itself, the only worthy element you get is the cover artwork, even better than the one from their debut. Still, Transmetal's path would lead them to better releases, much better musically and with much better sound, unsurprisingly worthier to own than this one.