Very little does “Ciudad sin Nombre” (City Without a name) delivers in order to change non believers into Trauma fans; on a solid, well recorded album, that suffers from a constant repetition of rock clichés and ballads that follow a common and overused song structure.

Some claim Trauma to be a heavy metal band, but their sound is unquestionable good old rock n’ roll, and that is something that doesn’t diminishes the fact that this is one of the oldest most solids outfits in our country, so taking their history into account I have to come clean and recognize that despite this been a clean, good effort, it lacks that “Je ne sais quoi” that makes albums transcend from their birth into our conscious. But perhaps I’m expecting or demanding too much from these guys, been that “Ciudad sin Nombre” doesn’t really tries to break any mold or present us with a more than straight forward rock album, and in that real they do manage to put their point across.

Most of the songs follow a common rock structure that introduce some heavy riffing right after a melodic mid tempo section… in other words they aim at rock ballads more than raging fast and powerful songs; sadly the only attempt in adding something interesting to the record fails miserably when a sort of rap/funk vocal performance on Superfunk turns out to sound just “tacky” (now that is a gay word indeed!). having said that there is a song that can be consider the “outstanding track on the album, “En la hoguera” gives us a classic rock song that easily stays with you thanks to the catchy guitar work and the easy to remember chorus line.

Ciudad sin Nombre might not be the “Obra Prima” of Trauma, but it handles the basic rules of rock n’ roll decently enough as to make you look for some of their latest material.