The sheer amount of international representation of metal throughout the entire world is something that will never cease to amaze me. When I first got into the style, I never once dared to think the genre had expanded to what seems to be the vast majority of countries across the globe, and it’s something that I’ll always enjoy. Columbia is one place that I haven’t looked into recently, but it’s with this sly release that I get my first taste of Columbian death/doom that I was more than looking forward to, and Cóndor delivered in the end despite a rocky start for me.

Bringing to the table the classic blend of death and doom metal is by far nothing we haven’t seen before as it’s something that’s been around for decades, but with a different dialect bringing the vocals and by going through history, I was hopeful that Cóndor could catch my attention with their fourth offering, “El Valle del Cóndor”. For the most part, I was correct with Cóndor providing a very classic-feeling take on the style and even throwing in some big influence from classic heavy metal that brings a special flair out in these nine tracks. It all comes together quite nicely as even though I can’t understand a single word given the obvious language barrier, I was still able to get into the riffs and the retro-esque heaviness that really carries “El Valle de Cóndor”. Yet, the one thing that I had trouble with was the vocals. Granted, they’re not bad as there’s plenty to enjoy out of the uncompromisingly raw sound that doesn’t relent, but it simply doesn’t gel with the instruments that great. It pulled me right out of the goodness that I was experiencing with “El Valle de Cóndor” up to that point, but fortunately, they got better over time simply by exposure to it.

Even though I feel the vocals could be much better given the surrounding material, there’s still no denying here that Cóndor has created a solid record from top to bottom.”El Valle del Cóndor” is something that’s a real mix of modern approach but with a retro execution, and I’ve no doubt that Cóndor will surely grow and create something in the future that surely I can fully support.

LISTEN to “El Valle del Cóndor” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Cóndor on Facebook here.