Coprófago - Genesis (2002)

Artista: Coprófago

Álbum: Genesis
Año: 2002
Género: Tech / Extreme Prog Metal
Duración: 34:44
Nacionalidad: Chile

Lista de Temas:
01. Time Zero
02. Chaos
03. La Idea de Borde
04. The Domain of Logic
05. Human Nature
06. Back to Corporeal State
07. Nailed Race (Bouns Track)
08. Empty Creature (Bonus Track)
09. The Ghost Inside (Bonus Track)

Alineación:
- Pablo Alvarez / vocals, guitars, keyboards
- Sebastian Vergara / guitars, vocals, keyboards
- Marcelo Ruiz / drums
- Rodrigo Castro / Fretless bass
With:
Felipe Castro / bass (tracks 7, 8 & 9)

Llegó el viernes y las propuestas del viernes siempre son muchas y variadas. Vamos con un estilo con el cual no profeso mucho y por ello no hago demasiados aportes ni comentarios: el llamado "Extreme Prog Metal" o "Technical Death Metal" mucho no me va, y en lo personal no me atrae nada a lo que pueda denominárselo "extremo", hablo de musical, en lo político o lo que quieran. Pero que no me guste a mí no significa que no lo podamos compartir con nuestros amigos metaleros, más si ahora tenemos visitantes que anoche fueron a ver a Machine Head y les partió la cabeza... Esta banda muy buena técnicamente, oriundos de Chile aunque lamentablemente canten en inglés, entre sus miembros se encuentra (ojo, no participa en este disco) el muy buen batero Cristobal Orozco, de altísimo nivel.

Ellos se llaman Coprofago o los Meshuggah chilenos, este es su segundo disco, creativo, interesante, con muchas polirritmias, cambios de compás, fusiones y hasta arreglos jazzeros, con muy buenb trabajo de los instrumentos y bueno, hay que soportar esa voz gutural que en lo personal se me hace lo más denso y pesado, pero por lo demás es un álbum interesante y fresco y los presentamos en el blog cabezón... Miren que edificante es la definición del nombre de la banda:

Se entiende por coprofagia la ingestión voluntaria de heces. El término proviene del griego, κόπρος copros (heces) y φαγειν phagein (comer). En la naturaleza existen especies animales que practican este acto, otras especies normalmente no lo hacen, excepto bajo condiciones inusuales. Solo en ocasiones es practicada por humanos, denominándose coprofilia (una parafilia).
Un animal coprófago es aquel que se alimenta exclusiva o mayoritariamente de un alimento que fortalezca en excrementos de otros animales y normalmente no puede subsistir utilizando otra fuente de alimento. Es un régimen alimentario casi exclusivo de los insectos, en especial de larvas de dípteros y de coleópteros escarabeoideos. Muchos animales consumen excrementos (elefantes, primates, roedores), pero dado que lo hacen de manera esporádica no pueden considerarse coprófagos. Tampoco son coprófagos los insectos que viven y se desarrollan en los excrementos depredando especies coprófagas; se trata de especies coprobias (que viven en los excrementos).
Las heces contienen cantidades importantes de alimentos semi-digeridos como consecuencia de la poca eficacia de los sistemas digestivos, en especial de los herbívoros. Este recurso es explotado con éxito por numerosos insectos que, además, contribuyen a reciclar la materia en los ecosistemas.

Wikipedia

En realidad, si escucho el disco y logro abstraerme de las voces, esto está bueno, me gusta. Buena técnica le ponen un moño a composiciones interesantes, con temas bien armados. Es una lástima que intenten seguir en las convenciones del género y no se animen a patear el tablero para ofrecer otra cosa, porque a primera vista parecen más de lo mismo... pero ojo que debajo de esos gritos hay unos movimientos musicales muy interesantes. Pienso que si se soltaran de tanto prejuicio impuesto parece ser que por el estilo, cantaran en castellano y no tuviesen necesidad mostrar su garra a puro grito, mejorarían muchísimo su propuesta.
Vamos con algunos comentarios en inglés (no encontré en castellano) a ver que opina otra gente...

Holy Hell, that's some heavy guitar. These guys know how to play. Their musical influences are massive, ranging from doom and death, all the way to jazz, and even a little bit of hardcore in the breakdowns. I'm still having a hard time getting over the guitars, even after owning this for over a year. They just pound away, sounding very industrial-like, producing some really pounding riffs, that if they caught you off guard, would crush your skull.
Of course, this band isn't limited to just pounding guitar, oh no. They can solo, too! The leads and solos you'll hear throughout this album are pretty awesome, and suit the music, although a lot of the time they seem to be buried by the pounding rhythm guitar. It's entirely forgivable, though.
The drumming is nicely buried, allowing the guitars to play on top, and not drowing everything like in some other technical bands. It's still definately hearable, though, and is very good.
Now, this band will go from pummeling your face, into a really light, synthy section, and play awesome leads over it, and then come back with some really dissonant riffing. Fading away into another song. There is even some bass soloing on this album, although it's very much buried under the guitars, as everything except the vocals seems to be.
This is definately a good, solid release, and I'd love to see more from this band, as they really know how to do what they do best. If you're a fan of technical death, you need this right now. If you want a way to get into technical death, this is a pretty good place to start. Pick it up.

Kanwvlf

Everything about this album is great. The fretless bass solos, the jazz break downs, crushing death metal riffs. If you don't own this album you definatley need to get it. There is a lot of jazz influence as well as a hardcore/grindcore influence. There are many riff changes, as it will often go from a heavily distorted death metal riff to a clean jazz riff. The production is very clear, unlike some death metal recordings where all that can be heard of the bass is the crunching sound it makes when the pick hits the string near the bridge.
The vocals are death vox and a sort of clean scream vox. The Drums are heavy on the double bass and keep the songs going. As I said before if you don't own this album you need to buy it.

Mecha

As the title states, Coprofago is what Meshuggah wishes to be, creative and interesting. While Meshuggah may have pioneered a style/guitar tone (there is still a debate over this) known as djent and have ridiculous playing skills, their albums are monotonous snooze-fests. Coprofago is quite similar to Meshuggah in the sense that they incorporate djenty chugging and polyrhythms into their music, but they differ from Meshuggah in the sense that they add honest-to-god riffs into their music as well as jazzy sections/solos.
The vocals can be likened to that of Meshuggah, a high raspy scream; however, the vocalists also brings a low death growl to the table, giving the vocals some more diversity. They're not amazing, but are suit the sporadic nature of the album.
Genesis mainly features a fretless bass, but a conventional bass is utilized at times. The playing is extremely technical and groovy, similar to that of the guitars. There is also a solo of two to be found on the album. The audibility of the bass is decent compared to other death metal records, but could be slightly better.
The guitar work on Genesis is rather interesting. As said before, there is your fair share of djenty, polyrhythmic chugging. Unlike Meshuggah, Coprofago throws in prog death riffs that sound somewhat like Cynic a few tech thrash riffs here and there. There are enough riffs to balance out with the chugging, keeping the album interesting and fresh. In addition, the guitarists throw in several melodic, jazzy solos into the mix. The solos structurally sound similar to that of Alan Holdsworth. They, despite their roots in fusion, manage to fit rather well into the musical maelstrom that is Genesis.
The drumming is nothing short of mind-blowing, not just in general, but also for a prog/tech death record. A comparison can be made to Meshuggah in terms of polyrhythmic technicality, but the drumming is more diverse than anything Meshuggah has done. There are a plethora of creative beats and fills along with occasional fusion drumming. Blast beats and grooves are present, but not extremely common.
This is quite obvious, especially at this point in the review, but Genesis in an extremely technical and sporadic album. It is absolutely littered with time signature changes, polyrhythms, and fusion intervals. Everything aspect of the album is complex and, surprisingly, it works. All this technicality comes together to create a coherent album. Sure, a few parts are a little rough, but that is expected with an album like this.
It does not shock me one bit that this band received praise from Atheist and Watchtower. Their compositional skills are superb and (once more) their technicality is off the charts. The best way to listen to Genesis is in its totality, don't skip any tracks. It works the best this way. I recommend this album for anyone who is a fan of prog/tech death.

Soul of the Woods

"Genesis" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Chile based progressive thrash metal act Coprofago. The album was released in 2000 by Sekhmet Records. The album originally only consisted of 6 tracks which must almost have made it an EP. The 2002 re-issue contains 3 bonus tracks recorded in 2002. They are not "new" tracks though but rather re-recorded versions of 3 tracks from the band's debut album "Images of Despair (1999)". In addition to the audio tracks the re-issue version of the album also feature a live video for the "Chaos" track.
Coprofago play a very progressive kind of extreme metal with heavy angular riffing, spacy jazzy sections and aggressive growling and shouting vocals (The latter vocal style reminds me of Phil Anselmo in an aggressive mood). I'd say they draw upon influences from as different artists as Meshuggah, Cynic and Pestilence (The spacy jazzy soloing from "Spheres (1993)"). One of the standout things about "Genesis" is the fretless bass playing by Rodrigo Castro, which gives the band's otherwise brutal and aggressive music a mellow jazzy/ progressive touch. The 6 "new" tracks are by far the most interesting on the album while the 3 "old" re-recorded tracks don't add much to the originals if you already have the debut album. In fact I prefer the more raw versions from the debut.
Overall "Genesis" is a very powerful, intriguing and well played album. We are talking very skilled musicians here. Track by track all songs on the album are intense progressive extreme metal tracks but because of the mixed nature of the release, with new tracks and re- recorded old ones, "Genesis" does sound a bit fragmented and lacking in consistency. A 3.5 star rating is deserved.

UMUR

La verdad, yo podría escucharlo con placer si no fuese porque este tipo de bandas necesita meter esas voces guturales permanentemente, es el único (y gran) punto bajo del grupo.
Y para los que les gustó esto, hoy tendremos más de esto para ofrecerles.