La Ira de Dios - "Hacia El Sol Rojo"
(Nasoni Records 2005, 039, CD/LP)
La Ira de Dios - "Hacia El Sol Rojo"
(Nasoni Records 2005, 039, CD/LP)
From Aural Innovations #32 (November 2005)
La Ira de Dios is a guitar/bass/drums trio from Peru that play a molten brand of heavy acidic power rocking psychedelia and space rock, much of which brings to mind Space Ritual era Hawkwind without the electronics. The band come roaring out of the starting gate hard and heavy with "Perdido En El Espacio" ("Lost In Space"), which on first listen I could have sworn was a cover of "Born to Go" sung in Spanish. But it's their own song and what a hard rocking acidic tune it is. Chino Burga's guitar goes into screaming acidic space while bassist Ali and drummer Tito Renteros form a high energy jamming rhythm section. And throughout the album these guys demonstrate what a down 'n dirty but rock solid jamming unit they are.
"A 3,000 Anos Blues" ("At 3,000 Blues Years") is next, and throughout much of this 9 minute instrumental we're treated to slower paced but high intensity spaced out heavy Blues based psych rock, until the last few minutes when the trio just can't help themselves and launch into a rocking acid-space tirade. "Ruge" ("Roar") is a calming change of pace, consisting of gentle folky acoustic guitar and vocals and light psychedelic electric guitar strums and licks. "La Senal" ("The Sign") starts off similarly easy paced, with a slow, steady psychedelic jam and breathy vocals that builds ever so gradually in volume and intensity and you just know it's going to explode. And does it ever… bang!... with some of the most tripped out screaming guitar on the album.
At 11 minutes "Empirea" is the longest track on the album, and with just a few lines of lyrics it's primarily an instrumental piece. It's another outstanding hard space rocking jam with Space Ritual elements, but also some very nice raw rocking melodic sections. Juanjo Salazar is credited as playing guest keyboards on this track, but if his keyboards are really there they're buried behind the mighty La Ira de Dios guitar/bass/drums. "Cabalgando en la Oscuridad" ("Riding in the Dark") is similar but with cool boogie woogie grooves. Finally, the album closes with the title track, which may be the shortest track of the set but it showcases the band at the hardest and most furious.
Wow! What a ride! If you like HARD power trio psych-rock with a cosmic space rocking edge then you're pretty well guaranteed to love La Ira de Dios. I've got to vote this one of the best guitar albums of the year for psychedelic power rock fans. The vocals are all in Spanish but the liner notes include English translations. This is their debut album and I hope to hear more from them soon.
For more information you can visit the Nasoni Records web site at: http://www.nasoni-records.com.
Email La Ira de Dio at: lairadedios@rock.com.
Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz