Falgar - La Dama del Alba

Sincerely, have you ever heard anything about the Puerto Rican Metal scene ?
No ? Me neither, until a few months ago.
To be honest, I was surprised about that, I never thought there would be any Metal band on this ridiculously small rock. So when I discovered that, I went on Metal Archives, checked a bunch of random bands, and spent quite some time on Youtube, hoping to stumble upon some good stuff.
Sounds like a good idea, huh ?
YEAH, JUST LIKE KICKING A BEAR IN THE BALLS.
I can't believe how much I had to TORTURE myself, by listening an incredible amount of shitty songs, almost for NOTHING.
YES, ALMOST.
They do have (barely) decent bands, but I only found ONE really worth of attention.
ONE.SINGLE.BAND, and It's a fucking MIRACLE that a GREAT project actually managed to emerge from this awful steaming pile of GOAT SHIT.
You don't know what to do with your life ? Record your farts and make a song out of them, or slam your cock in a door, it will still be more interesting than listening "Puerto Rican Metal".
Phew, I really needed to say that...

So, La Dama del Alba (Lady of the Dawn) is the third full-length of Falgar, the solo project of Etienne Goldberg, a talented musician from San Juan, capital city of Puerto Rico.
This third act, a concept-album based on the Greek goddess Artemis, has been released on Bandcamp on April, and on tape version (limited 100ex.) by Nebular Winter Productions a few months later.

La Dama del Alba is a raw, slow-paced album, with sharp-edged guitar sound, played in mid-tempo from the beginning to the end of it.
That rhythm choice allows the band to settle a monotonous, cold and ethereal atmosphere (reinforced by the presence of a calm, eerie and beautiful Ambient outro track), instead of simply blasting your ears off, which is a good point, in my opinion.
So, do not expect super fast riffs, blast-beats, or anything that includes the notion of speed, you would be disappointed.

Now that you know how the album sounds, I'd like to talk about the vocals.
I have nothing to say about the harsh passages, they fit perfectly to the songs, but Etienne pretty much messed-up the clear passages.
I wouldn't say that it sounds bad, nonetheless, there's still some work to do on that part, like learning how to properly mix his fucking voice rather than using reverb to drown it in the music.
I speak spanish, and despite the fact that he's not screaming, I can't understand a single word of what the fuck he says. It's a detail, since he doesn't sing like that very often, but it's kinda annoying.

That being said, La Dama del Alba is a great album, and everybody should at least listen to it.

You, who is reading this review, don't be an asshole and support the ONLY good band in Puerto Rico !



Available here for 3€ +shipping