ALBUM REVIEW: Mala Suerte – Sabrewulf

SABREWULF have been around for a while now. Formed by four friends in Texas in 2011, they’ve long sought to make their mark on the hardcore scene. It will come as a surprise to some then that Mala Suerte is only their second full-length album. It follows their 2016 debut Sangre Y Alma. This time around, the band are looking to “take things up a notch.” The result is 32 minutes of angry and aggressive death metal tinged hardcore.

SABREWULF describe the album as “a trip through the barren Texas desert that leaves you gasping for air while your skin gets burnt to a crisp by the punishing rays of the sun.” They’re not wrong – Mala Suerte is definitely a suffocating, oppressive record. But it’s also deeply reminiscent of another sounds, one spawned some 5,000 miles away. Mala Suerte reveals a band with an obvious love for Swedish death metal legends like ENTOMBED and HYPOCRISY. It’s chock full of blast beats, guttural vocals, and, of course, that iconic ‘buzzsaw’ guitar sound. As well as this, SABREWULF maintain a firm hardcore grounding throughout. It’s a tried and tested combination which often draws comparisons to the crusty savagery of NAILS or early NAPALM DEATH, among others.

It doesn’t take long for listeners to work out what to expect from Mala Suerte. After a brief ominous intro, Beyond The Gates erupts into a blistering tremolo picked riff, put through the instantly recognisable Boss HM-2 guitar pedal. After this, the band tear into the first two songs proper: Grave Of Pestilence and Warbreeder. With shifting tempos and plenty of heavy riffs, both tracks are a good blend of hardcore and death metal. Together, they make for a decent opening even if things do feel a little one note. Warbreeder also makes it clear that SABREWULF definitely know their way around a punishing breakdown. For this kind of music, it’s an essential skill, and it’s reassuring to know that the band have it. It’s topped later however by seventh track Ritual Skin, which features perhaps the most bludgeoning moment on the whole album.

It’s fair to say that the production on Mala Suerte definitely takes some getting used to. This isn’t necessarily a problem – the same is true for many of SABREWULF‘s obvious influences. But it does mean that listeners are probably a little more receptive to the record as it goes on. It also helps that the quality of the songs improve. After a perfectly fine start, things pick up on the one-two punch of Bottom Dweler and Final Prayer. These songs continue the crushing feel of their predecessors, but with added sonic variation. The former features some cool lead guitar licks with a much cleaner tone than found on the rest of the record. The latter sees the band play around with dynamics a little more, as well as introducing some clean female vocals for what’s surely the strangest cover of R.E.M.‘s Losing My Religion of all time.

From here, the four track run of Inverted Faith, Ritual Skin, Coffin Nails and Marked For Death resumes business as usual. Of the four of them, Marked For Death is probably the best. It features a particularly stompy riff, as well as plenty of blistering blast beats and D-beat sections. Aside from that, and Ritual Skin’s already mentioned breakdown, these songs don’t really offer much to write home about. There’s nothing particularly wrong with any of them – as individual tracks they’re each perfectly fine – but together they run the risk of numbing listeners to SABREWULF‘s constant onslaught.

This argument becomes even stronger with the album’s closing title track – another high point on the record. At seven minutes and 20 seconds, it’s the longest song on Mala Suerte by some way. It’s also easily the most dynamic, with quieter ominous verses that erupt into the band’s more recognisable crush. This is a good reminder of the age old concept of ‘light and shade’, with the softer sections serving to make the heavier parts feel even heavier. If anything, it’s a bit of a shame the band didn’t apply this idea a little more often, as it could have helped to break up the more relentless heaviness of the songs preceding it.

Overall, Mala Suerte is definitely a little too long for the number of ideas it contains. With the exception of the closing track, SABREWULF seem to focus almost exclusively on bashing their listeners over the heads. While it comfortably tops Sangre Y Alma as the band aimed to do, it feels as though they’re still a little way from the finished article. That said, fans of the crusty, punishing, deathy hardcore which appears to be increasingly prevalent at the moment will probably be happy enough to add this to their collection.

Rating: 6/10

Mala Suerte is out now via Petrichor.

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