Hacavitz - Venganza
Moribund Records

file under Death metal / Grindcore

Jean: Do you remember the antique Phonographic pick-ups with bakelite blades? Good, throw a standard death metal LP on it and chuck the needle on the 78 rpm black plate and one comes close to what the Mexican band Hacavitz sound like.

With the album 'Venganza' - which is scorching my CD player this very moment - denies all existing boundaries between black and death metal. Listening to the extremely fast blast beats, the high-speed guitar parts and the totally unintelligible vocals it surprises me that one can make the perfect mix between black and death metal without any difficult moments. Perhaps it’s haughty to mention, but the last album I’ve heard that was able to explore this borderline between the two genres is most likely ‘Altars or Madness’ from Morbid Angel.

After an intro of 2:44 minutes the violence starts and one can clearly hear that Hacavitz certainly has been influenced by the abovementioned band. The few solos on this album reveal that the guitarist is heavily influenced by Trey Azagthot. The main guitar parts possess that typical Trey style as well: busy, fast riffs with sudden stops built into them. The vocals sound like a razorblade and are varied with deep grunts and growls. There are no real highlights, due to the fact that all songs have the same tempo. Even when the band lets the listener catch his breath for a bit, this is only for a very short moment. Nevertheless, Hacavitz play super-tight and at a pace that only few bands can follow.

Research shows that the disc was recorded in the Inzonik Studio, Mexico. The producer succeeded in giving this album the precise production that it needed. ‘Venganza’ sounds a little dull just like the bigger underground black metal bands sound. I am curious to know how Hacavitz would have sounded with a production in Fredman or Morrisound Studios. The record comes in a rather unclear cover with an unclear logo - that has a stereotype inverted Jesus into it. They will certainly receive much attention via this high-speed demolishing CD ‘Venganza’. As the band already mentioned on their internet site: “And that whirlwind holocaust is complete. In full force. No genres, just extremity. Simply, Venganza!”, nothing more is less true!

Rating: 75/100 (details)

http://www.hacavitz.com