Beats and yelling: Letalis

Verdadero Poder
Out 19^th November, self-released

The second offering from this Chilean powerhouse of speed metal smooths off the rougher edges of the debut, seeing a more focused, weighty, yet no less frantic entity come into sharp relief. Letalis thread the needle of maturity by employing a fatter production, tighter songwriting, and a more intentional flow to the pieces whilst sacrificing none of the outrageous intensity that makes their sound such a curveball. Choppy, dense, almost childish in the way it staggers over itself to throw ideas out. But all is bound together by an overarching logic articulated through some sharp micro-licks running through each piece like currents in a stream, alongside Jacqueline Jara’s vocals that veer from oddly wistful melodies to an almost deranged freneticism.

Despite the pace at which raw material passes by the listener’s ears, the production managers to frame all this surplus activity without buckling. The mix is fresh and clear but retains a degree of grit that imbues the music with a revitalising punk energy. The drums are impressively heavy given the speed at which most of these tracks breeze by. The performance cuts through with gusto, anchored by a strong yet “bassy” bass drum. From here the organised chaos of the music situates itself. Rhythm guitar following the dictates of the percussion, sculpting the riffs and choppy melodies around the flowing waves of metronomic energy. Bass also makes a strong showing, detaching itself from the gravitational pull of the guitars at regular intervals, and even contributing a solo to the title track. But of course, the guitar leads are given the starring role in the mix, dominating all with unapologetic flair alongside Jara’s vocals as they teeter on the edge of control.

What makes Letalis standout in the field of speed cum heavy metal is the fact that they don’t treat it like a playground. It’s the difference between living and performing. The material is intense, at times hard to follow, at others abrasive and hyperactive. But it seems to flow naturally out of these musicians, an intuitive stream of artisanal metallic activity. The result is an utterly un-curated experience of classic metal furnishings, placing demands on the listener over and above merely servicing them with preselected genre tropes as is so often the case with modern iterations of classic metal styles coming out of the Northern hemisphere.

In this sense ‘Verdadero Poder’ is a purifying experience. Capital M Metal finding its unfiltered voice again. For all its density, nuance, momentaneous complexity, there is no sense of balance, comfort, or the need to pander to the alleged subtlety of artificially manufactured “taste” cultivated within the metal scene for the last twenty years or so. The result is unmediated experience. A preconscious encounter with the unpolished mechanics of classic heavy and speed metal regalia.