Transmetal: Burial at Sea (1992)

How the hell am I just now hearing about this band?  Transmetal is a Mexican thrash/death metal band who has been around since the mid 1980's and still continues pumping out music now.  They have also been incredibly prolific at various points in their career.  They have released an astounding 24 albums in their career and this album was one of two released in 1992 alone.  That is damn impressive.  The three constant members of the band are brothers, something, which is also impressive considering how long the band has lasted.  My brothers and I would have never been able to pull something like this off.

This album, much like everything else Transmetal has released, flew under the radar.  That seems to be the case about most of their material because all told they only have three total reviews on their Metal Archives page.  That is a damn shame because this album would have fit in quite well with the thrash metal scene as it was in the early 1990's.  I am talking about the progressive song structures and experimental riffing style.  It is not an overly aggressive sound, though there are some crushing riffs at times.  Think a less technical version of Heathen for an example.

The musicianship on the album is very impressive and the band is not content to write standard song progressions.  Riffs tend to drop out of nowhere and solos occur seemingly randomly.  But there is a method to the madness and the album actually manages to flow quite well.  The vocals have some unusual effect where they sound somewhat muffled and echoing. 

This album appears to be the first English-language album from Transmetal.  Unfortunately, it still failed to gain much of a following.  But this album is pretty damn good and I need to look into more of the band's catalog.  I certainly will after this release.