Let’s first establish something very clearly, Costa Rica’s grandfathers of metal are among the best in their genre when it comes to write catchy classic metal riffs, and I’m not comparing them just to Latin American heavy metal bands, I’m comparing them to international renown names such as Iron Maiden, Saxon and Judas Priest… yes the riffs in “En pie de Guerra” are that good; sadly bad vocal placement restrain this record from going beyond our borders.

There is a huge improvement in this 2007 release from what we had the pleasure to heard on their 2002 debut “Pasado y Presente”; the riffs are tighter, faster, catchier, is like this bunch of middle age guys (we are all on that way… if we are lucky!) decided one day to take on some serious steroids diet and returned bigger and meaner but not as delusional as Barry Bonds or Jose Canseco (you got to watch some ESPN once in a while!). The production is clean and handles all the instruments with respect but misses just like their past album did, to include the vocals a bit more into the flux of the guitars and the solid drum work; Adrián Moya has some powerful pipes in him, but the lack of coordination between the amazing riffs and his vocal inclusion on some songs continuous to affect the global sound of the record; like I mention earlier, there is a huge improvement even in this department from “Pasado…” but a band as talented and experience as this guys need to be pushed, there is still much work to be done in how they layer the vocals with the guitars.

With the risk of contradicting myself, I have to point out that a song that manages to include almost to perfection Mr. Moya’s work is the epic, Spartan inspired “El Poder del Oraculo” really one of the strongest songs on the album, right next to the best instrumental piece “Heavy Metal” (not really an instrumental piece but the lack of coordination between Moya and the guitars make it hard to listen, yet the riffs are freaking amazing and the video is great too!). Their true instrumental piece “Solsticio De Verano” is a nice display of blazing guitars, cover with just a drop of melodies that sound a bit folkish yet rooted in the true tradition of heavy metal.

“En Pie de Guerra” has some of the best riffs you can find on any true heavy metal act, yet the vocals are more heavy rock inspired, Acero does have a good singer, but it will be nice for them to reconsider if their sharp riffs could be best represented by a “dirtier” sound on the vocals.