Buen Destino is a new hardcore band from Barcelona. It is formed by members and ex-members of a host of other bands, none of which rung a bell. On this self-titled album the band incorporates a big range of influences. Their Bandcamp tells me this album should appeal to fans of Killing Joke, Discharge, Converge, Jesus Lizard, Daughters, Dead Cross, Breach or His Hero is Gone. That is a lot to take in. Can Buen Destino prove their promo-writers right?
First thing you’ll notice when listening to this album is the a-typical production. They chose a whole different sound than one would expect from a hardcore band. This is where the noise influences seep through in the sound. The guitar sound is massive, but also a strange kind of warm and somewhat fuzzy. Allowing climaxes such as the end of “Los Creyentes” to sound like a wall of sound hitting you and enveloping you until there is nothing else in the world. The vocals are drenched in an echo sound effect adding to that same effect.
This big sound works best on the more noisy tracks. On the shorter, more explosive tracks it is a bit of a different story. These tracks show influences of Converge and at times a dash of Discharge (although I sometimes wonder if I hear it because it is suggested I should hear it). The speed is up, there’s chaos abound. On these tracks the production choices make it at times hard to follow what is going on. The weird thing is: it is only some days this bothers me. Other days I am okay with this.
Back to the difference between the longer and shorter tracks: the longer the track the bigger the noise influences, the shorter the track, the more chaos ensues. I can appreciate this, although I would have liked to see the band blend their influences more. What keeps everything together on this release is the drumming and the relentlessly screamed (through an echo sound effect) vocals. The end result is a big sounding album. It lasts only about half an hour. However, the big sound and the constant barrage of screamed vocals make it a bit of a tiring experience.
To come back to the question that opened this review: the Bandcamp promised more than the band delivers on this album. I can detect roughly two styles toyed around with, either noisy hardcore or relentless, slightly chaotic hardcore. The other styles hinted at by the relentless name dropping are better hidden or even completely absent. I am not saying this is a bad thing though. These two styles mixed already make up for a challenging ride.
Buen Destino showed they are not afraid to try something new, something a bit different. This results in an album that most certainly deserves attention. It is however not without its flaws. I hope these will be sorted out in the future, because I have high hopes for future releases.
