Artist: Acid Mess
Album: Sangre De Otros Mundos
Label: Spinda Records
Release Date: 06/11/2020
Country: Spain
Written by James Sweetlove
Let us take a look at Acid Mess and their latest offering Sangre De Otros Mundos, which dropped yesterday on Spinda Records.
For anyone who isn’t familiar with the band, they hail from Oviedo, Spain and play a blend of heavy psych, prog rock and rock stoner rock, but also draw in elements of folk and doom. They have an incredibly unique sound and style and in essence play whatever they feel like playing, completely ignoring any musical boundaries or limitations. The band is Miguel Ruiz (guitars and vocals), Borja Vázquez (bass and vocals), Antonio Tamargo (drums and backing vocals)and Juan Villamil (synth and keys). On this particular album we also have some guest musicians, such as Sergio Pevida (percussion and “palmas”), as well as Aurora Salazar & Débola Hernández (vocals on “Salvaje historia” and “El reflejo de su piel”).
This is the band’s third full-length album since their formation in 2009 and this time we get 7 tracks with a combined total length of 48 minutes. This is a solid offering of pure psychedelic bliss.
The album opens with El Reflejo De Su Piel, which comes in at just under 9 minutes and is one hell of an opening track. The album starts off with a moody and atmosphere laden, slow tempo track. We get acoustic guitar paired with mournful layered vocals to achieve a powerful effect. We have elements slowly added to the mix such as synth, reverb and distortion. Then around the 4:20 mark we get some truly prog rock elements burst out of the mix that remind me very much of late career Opeth. The instrumentals have a definite Opeth Heritage vibe to them, there is that menacing and yet beautiful guitar tone and the organ. This however is where the similarities stop, the vocals are very much different. We get a great mix of clean and shouted vocals to match the music. We then have some beautiful and haunting female vocals added to the mix courtesy of our guest vocalists mentioned above. Overall, this is one hell of an opener and immediately makes me have to listen to the full album.
Track 2 Fuego Al Templo immediately hits us with a ton more energy than the opener but doesn’t feature the harsh or prog rock elements. Immediately from the opening of the song we get a fantastic blend of psych-based guitar, organ and synth in a truly groovy rhythm. Then when the slightly distorted clean Spanish vocals kick in we have another fantastic element added to the mix. But we must acknowledge the pièce de résistance, the cowbell, featured so permanently in the mix at points that it would make Christopher Walken proud. Another factor that I genuinely appreciate about the music is that we get some of that Spanish rhythm thrown into the mix, just one more factor that makes the album that much more captivating. The last 1/3 or so of the song is a fantastic synth and bass laden soundscape and a pleasure to listen to.
Track 3 Hechicera is much more relaxed and smoother in nature. There are some jazzy elements in the mix here too, so you see some interesting rhythms. The vocals really take their time to enter the mix and only do so once the song has truly been established. There’s fantastic percussion work on this one with an array of different drums. the guitar work is fantastic, particularly following the 4-minute mark, we start to get some really psychedelic rock heavy influences here. The whole track is complemented by the synth and key work constantly at play. We get some interesting guitar work towards the end of the song that closes it out perfectly.
Track 4 Futuro Sin Color starts out slow but blossoms into a high energy, upbeat track with plenty of catchy rhythms. There’s a bit more a straight up rock energy here, paired with elements from other genres. But this is the most purely rock based track on the album. Until around the 4-minute mark that is when the song completely changes and takes on heavy Middle Eastern influences, both in its overall style, but also in the instrumentals. It appears that we are treated to some fantastic sitar, paired with some great percussion work on hand drums. There are also elements here of surf rock, which I find really interesting. Then all of a sudden, the track ends on a high energy note.
Track 5 Salvaje historia features some great Spanish rhythms and pairs them with organ, synth and psychedelic guitar work. Compared to the rest of the album this track is substantially shorter, coming in at 4:34, making it the second shortest on the album. The downside to this is that you don’t get as much of the experimentation that the band works into the other tracks, mostly due to time constraints. However, having said that the band still manage to work plenty into the time they have given themselves, including more interesting Middle Eastern elements and some more fantastic female vocals to match from our guest vocalists.
Track 6 Hijos Del Sol is the shortest track on the album, coming in at 4:23. This time we kick off immediately into some synthwave style music that honestly reminds me of something from an 80s movie soundtrack. This synth beat will remain under the rest of the music on this particular track. The other elements such as the guitar and vocals all glide across the top of this beat. We get some more high energy and dramatic segments in the middle of the track where we take a short break from the beat but then it returns with a vengeance with yet another layer of synth over the top of it.
Last but not least we have Infierno Gris, the albums closing track, which comes in at 7:27 giving us a substantial finish to the album. We start off with some relaxed psych featuring low energy (but still very moving) guitar, bass and synth. Around 1:45 the vocals kick in and maintain the same level of energy as the instrumentals. This is a very soothing and relaxing track but still has plenty of emotion to it. This continues through to about 5:40 when things really pickup and we get that stoner rock energy coming through. We are treated to some pretty damn tasty riffs here, before things settle down again taking us through to the close of the track.
What a journey of an album, we are taken through an array of so many styles and sound, with elements picked from different genres and different regions of the world. I especially appreciate the Spanish and Middle Eastern influences on the release and feel like they do nothing but amplify the psych elements on the release, elevating them to new heights. So, make sure to take some time out of your day and give this bad boy a spin or two, you won’t regret it.
Listent to the full album below:
Bandcamp:
Spotify:
Apple Music:
