Worldwide Metal: Peru
Peru is a land of contrasts, blending ancient heritage and modern hardships and challenges. Known for its iconic Machu Picchu and the legacy of the Inca Empire, the country is steeped in history and culture. Peru remains a global treasure, celebrated for its diverse natural landscapes. From the Amazon rainforest to the Andes mountains. Peru's rich cultural identity and natural beauty offer hope and inspiration for its future. With such a historic past and a natural soundscape of peace, beauty and danger like the Amazon, is there an aggressive side deep in the metal scene? Is there a metal scene in Peru? Today, I look into the country of Peru and see if I can find some heavy music you should check out.
The first band I’ll be talking about today truly takes their heritage to heart with the folk metal band 8.8. Formed in 2014, the band’s heavy metal aesthetic, combined with their country’s instrumentation, adds a perfect marriage of acts like The Hu and Finntroll nail so well. With the album’s opening track “El brujo”, it is like an NWOBHM track with flutes and unique and creative musical interpretation. Any power metal fans or folk metal fans will definitely dig this creative and unique act.
Next band has a plethora of influences from the extreme metal scene. Anal Vomit, formed in 1992, truly hits like a ton of bricks with brutal death metal, thrash and even elements of black metal. From the band’s debut Demoniac Flagellations in 2005, to the band’s last record in 2015’s Peste negra, muerte negra, Anal Vomit just go for the throat and keep stabbing. Heavy, fast, violent, and headbang worthy from the start, a true hidden gem in the extreme metal scene of Peru.
Now let’s head into a unique genre of stoner/doom and psychedelic rock with our next act Matus. This eclectic five-piece create moments of classic, groovy 70’s prog rock like Pink Floyd, but add that bouncy, bluesy groove from legends Black Sabbath to modern day acts like Lucifer and Blues Pills. With six albums under their belt, the band is not letting up and creating that music that just makes you wanna chill with some good weed and a great pair of speakers.
The last band I’ll be talking about today showcases the melodic death metal scene in Peru. Murder tackles themes of existentialism in their music, while hitting the listener with pummeling guitar riffs that sound straight out of Gothenburg. The band’s sole release, 2020’s Devastación, has such a nice, groovy, chugging heaviness throughout it. And with vocalist Cesar "Chino" Q’s vulture-like screams, it adds a dynamic and different sounding snarl and disgusting sound to the band’s melodic death metal roots in a good way.
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That’s going to do it for my time visiting Peru. Did you dig some of the bands I featured in this edition? Were there any bands you think other readers should check out? You can also let me know what country I should travel to next, so I can stamp my metal passport on my journey to discover Worldwide Metal.
