Acrania – Fearless – Album Review

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Diversity in any musical genre is essential if music is to survive the copious societal evolutions that befall humanity and such diversity is found in the latest offering of Mexico’s Acrania, whose latest release, Fearless, lives up to its name and rightly so. Infusing metal with a style completely out of place in the genre – Latin funk(!) – the sound of trumpets dance around chunky, syncopated Sepultura/Hatebreed styled riffs and conga drums vie for sonic superiorty amidst the bombastic double bass and basslines that seamlessly tango (yes, pun intended) from blazing sixteenth noted runs typical of extreme metal to volatile salsa-like rhythms. Diversity incarnate.

“People of the Blaze” is perhaps the most telling composition of the album, showcasing a prominent hardcore influence replete with a trumpet and saxophone duel until all signs of metal disappear and the listener is left with nothing but Latin-inspired funk! In fact, this motif carries through the majority of the songs with “Blinded by Power” highly indicative of the Latin music override; never growing old it’s as if Carlos Santana is jamming with Max Cavalera on a hot summer’s afternoon, on a beach somewhere in Acapulco!

Admittedly, this release will take a few listens to sink in but Acrania’s music is an excellent example of pride in one’s cultural heritage and should be not be treated as mere novelty music. Fearless demands to be heard and to be included into the heavy metal lexicon. After all, four well known metal-heads did a similar metal melding with Brazillian music almost twenty years ago. Now, it’s time for Acrania to be just as ‘fearless’ as Sepultura once were. 9/10