Esto Es Brujeria: CD

Brujeria emerged, shrouded in mystery and infamy, in 1989. Forcefully introducing phrases like Matando Güeros, La Migra, and Marijuana y Brujerizmo into the lexicon of extreme subcultures from hardcore punk to death metal, the brutal death-grind band from Mexico came to represent the notoriously violent world of illegal drug trafficking, vicious retaliation, and a sinister syncretism between Afro-Caribbean sorcery like Palo Mayombe and Santeria with outright demonic possession.

Conjured like a cabal whenever society reaches a new tipping point between order and chaos, Brujeria sacrifice songs to full-length albums and singles by their own calendar, as decidedly apocalyptic as the Mayans. Records like Raza Odiada (1995) and Brujerizmo (2000) are undeniable classics. Ripping excoriations of headlines like “Amaricon Czar” (2019) and “COVID-666” (2020) are bitingly topical. Coco Loco (a metal mascot as iconic to many metalheads as Iron Maiden’s Eddie or Megadeth’s Vic Rattlehead) returns in 2023, emblazoned on a ferocious fifth full-length album dubbed simply Esto Es Brujeria.

Brujeria makes the metal version of the corrido, a traditional Mexican song style built on storytelling. The narratives cover everything from history to daily life for outlaws. In Brujeria’s case, the narrator’s tales range from outright murder of the oppressor to drug deals gone wrong. On Esto Es Brujeria, their blistering new platter, they spin stories about everything from being Party Boss to a first night in jail.

Brujeria’s 1993 debut, Matando Güeros, was so extreme that record stores and distributors returned copies en masse the moment translators made English versions of the lyrics available. But it was too late to stop Brujeria, as word of the devastating riffs and wild tales of drugs, sex, and murder spread. Esto Es Brujeria brings Brujeria roaring full circle into the post-pandemic era, with the deep polarization, civil unrest, ongoing brutality, and social upheaval of the day ripe for the band’s notorious critiques.

Steeped in dense myth, extreme metal’s most notorious antiheroes materialize anytime, anywhere, to spin their tales of anarchic mayhem and lawless fury. They are eternal banditos, prepared to party.