Year: 2023
Label: Nube Negra Prods
Rating: 8,7 / 10
The second album of the enchanting Chilean project VÓRTIZE was released just a year after the debut, which, give n the richness of his music, surprised me at first. But, as it turned out, “Desde bajo tierra" is a kind of collaboration, where seven guest musicians took part. Three of them wrote their own songs for the album, so hecatoncheir Javier Ortiz had the opportunity to relax a little this time.
Flaites, indigentes, maleantes y presidentes
No podrán escapar de mi martillo mortal
Soy el que llega pateando atrapando delincuentes
No te preocupes, yo velo por tu integridad
Despite this, the new album is not fundamentally different from the debut. It's the same Spanish-language romantic, soulful Heavy Metal, which makes your heart sink so often that can inadvertently get a heart attack. The presence of more active guest musicians, of course, influenced VÓRTIZE, but not as much as one might expect. The main changes are limited to three aspects. Firstly, the album is a little more frisky and heavy than its predecessor. Even the ”ballad" tracks here are played to a loaded electric guitar. If the debut existed in the paradigm of the dawn of Heavy Metal of the 80s, then “Desde bajo tierra” often echoes with the future Speed Metal. I only welcome this change, as I have always advocated fast, dynamic heavy metal, but I must say it was excellent before, too.
El ente sin razón
Que habita en tu interior
Que hoy tienes como identidad…
Secondly, the sound has also undergone a certain modernization. The ancient warm crispness has disappeared from it, but expressiveness, iron clanking and reverberation have been added. This is also not a bad thing, because the sound is still authentic and 100% alive. Only in the last track it seems that the hardware settings have somehow gone astray. Finally, thirdly, the songs turned out a little bit –I repeat, a little bit - less risky and more structured. But even in this case, they are able to twist your head like a carousel. After all, as before, there are constant different tuned guitars, all kinds of vocals, Latin American ethnic acoustics. And countless guitar solos. And a whistling solo, again. I can't help but notice that, thanks to the more ordered structures, these songs cement themselves into your memory almost instantly, even if you only know the words "puta” and "pendejo" from all Spanish language.
Siempre metal (Siempre metal)
le gritarás al viento
Heavy metal (te ayudará)
Te ayudará a sanar
In short, "Desde bajo tierra" turned out to be just great, but I am not sure if it is better or weaker than the debut, so I give it the same rating. But I can say the following with confidence: the music of the modest band VÓRTIZE is dozen times better than all the modern Heavy Metal "products" that I can imagine. This even applies to my favorite underground bands like XENOTAPH and the gods like IRON MAIDEN, because the music of the latter doesn't offer the same sound and emotions for many years now. And, after VÓRTIZE, listening to some kind of plastic crap like modern HELLOWEEN or ARMORED SAINT is, I'm sorry, like leaving a restaurant of Latin American folk cuisine to eat dog vomit instead of fragrant Pastel de choclo; unacceptable and pointless.Of course, such a unique band as VÓRTIZE could only appear in one place on this planet: in a country of metal called Chile.
English (UK) 
Крыўская