With a stellar line-up featuring vocalist Eugene S. Robinson (ex-Oxbow), guitarist Xabier Iriondo (Afterhours, A Short Apnea), bassist Andrea Lombardini (The Framers) and Franz Valente (Il Teatro Degli Orrori), Buñuel return with their sophomore record, Mansuetude. A true follow-up to Killers Like Us, Mansuetude further exposes Buñuel's dark, twisted noise rock, from the get-go with "Who Missed Me." The dark sinister demeanor collides with the sparse progression, crafting a dark, asphyxiating ambiance where Robinson's delivery thrives. And while Mansuetude features many twists and turns, this gnarly feeling stays with you for the near-hour-long ride through noise rock and avant-rock mazes.
Soon enough "Who Missed Me" exposes the full extent of Buñuel's protean form, as it bounces between many sounds and styles. The crazed rhythms provide volatility, and coupled with the creative, quasi-improvisational motifs they have a vast area to experiment. The Oxbow avant-rock style is visited, by way of the '70s heavy rock riffs served with extra fuzz and the throwback post-punk dream waves. While this is all happening in just one track, the record mirrors the same expressive breadth, even reaching for more aggressive outbreaks such as the thrashy explosions of "Trash" or retreating to an atmospheric setting.
The latter is where Buñuel truly establish their nightmarish vision. The start of "Movement No. 201" makes your skin crawl, setting this demonic ambiance, an inescapable hellscape much like one of their namesake's films. The deconstructed avant-rock viewpoint carries this vision, further establishing its grotesque glory with the closing track, "A Room In Berlin." The icing on top comes through drone rock machinations, evident through the sparse and punishing arrangements of "Leather Bar" and the sludge dimension of "Pimp." Even when the distortion is dialed down and the setting is converted to something smoother, as with "A Killing On The Beach," there is still a feeling of something out of place. It leads to an alien ambiance, a dreamlike scenery turned upside down.
This towering and oppressive side is met with an electrifying, high-octane rock perspective that relishes past glories. A true retro feeling radiates from the melodies of "Drug Burn" and "High. Speed. Chase." which provides an old-school perspective to their sound. It helps build up the noise rock presence in tracks like "Bleat" and increases this graceful awkwardness for "American Steel" and "Fixer." And while Buñuel take their time deconstructing many of these ideas, especially with tracks like "Class," they also return to a Helmet-ian point of original. It is this methodology and openness that elevates Mansuetude, building beyond the foundation the band set with Killers Like Us. Following their debut release, I thought it would be a one-off for Buñuel and they would ride into the sunset, never to be heard again. They said what they had to say and that would be it. But, I was wrong. And I am glad.
