“Hábitos de Guerra” or War habits for those of you that don’t speak Spanish beyond “taco and señorita”, ok sorry about that, I don’t pretend to give you a lesson about just how important it is to learn the other languages that are been spoken in your continent, you should know that by now, and I should learn Portuguese!

80’s thrash with Spanish lyrics… I know, I know recently there have been a flood of old school thrash bands all over the world, but this album is from 2002, when thrash was pretty much forgotten and melodic death was king; so give then a break and read more about this Peruvian band, because their sound is quite good!

Tired and bored with underground dirty, shitty productions that come from all over Latin America. I wasn’t and I must admit I’m never very excited about reviewing an unknown act from any part of South or Central America, and not because there is no talent; tired and bored because the sound is always so fucking awful that the actual song structure and rhythm gets lost inside some disgraceful recording… but to my surprise “Hábitos de Guerra” stood out of the ordinary, with a clean, very respectful production that enhanced and highlighted the best assets this band from Arequipa has to offer.

Mudra has a very good, very nice sense of what it takes to write some fast crunchy thrash riffs, and they know very well how to exploit that talent with melt facing riffs, memorable almost “groovy” tempos and remarkably accurate yet dirty drums; they take you on a real flashback trip to what the 80’s thrash era had to offer and mix it with some good clean production…I’m still not over the fact that the production is so good!

Despite their clear knowledge of thrash riffs, and thrash tempos, there are some serious problems with the lyrics, and this “phenomenon” is something I have seen happen before and it happens a lot believe me! Ok so for some reason, the placement of the vocal line is forced, let me explain… they sometimes sound out of place or simply carry a different tempo from what the guitars are doing, creating this “amateur” like feeling that truly doesn’t do them any justice, the band is obviously better than that!

Hábitos de Guerra is a good record, could have been a great record if they have worked on the placement of the vocals for a couple of more weeks!