New Wave’s heyday was the 1980s. Likewise, progressive rock’s niche spotlight was during the 1970s’ hazy aura. But we live in the 2010s, two decades after grunge pinned alternative sounds into a nihilistic corner. The time is long overdue for the metal community to break through that door blocking an untouched room full of promise and growth. Unfortunately for purists, Argentina’s Resistencia Chaco is warrant-less and known for wanton usage of an aural battering ram.
No mental anticipation can prepare your ears for the castigating cacophony throughout the hour-plus of Una Puerta Roja en Algún Lugar de la Republica Checa (which translates to A Red Door in Some Location Within the Czech Republic). The eponymous song alone, with its sludgy bari-sax (no cool Gerry Mulligan sugarcoating) and the rare impressive usage of double-bass drumming guarantees a shattered mind.
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Now, whether or not drummer/bandleader Augusto Urbini and his grand gauchos seek to end a 21st century political foe is to be determined; however, this is revolutionary music. The tune is unrelenting and challenging progressive metal. Neither preconceptions nor red doors stand a fighter’s chance. Noise — noise! — is the gentle sonic-space that completes the scenery painted by each song.
Free-metal? Perhaps. Listening to the album reveals a slew of similar groups, for whiffs of Praxis, Dysrhythmia, Led Bib, and Graviton are emitted from the source. Not to mention that discordant woodwinds play a prevalent role as well. Ada Rave (tenor sax) and Pablo Puntoriero (baritone sax) are the proverbial backbone to Resistencia Chaco’s melodic ambitions. These horns are used in a unique hard rock manner removed from black metal (Ihsahn and Sigh), and instead reminiscent of Zappology (see: Gutbucket) most predominantly heard on “Gato Negro” (track three) and “Sigfried” (track five), both of which enchant the Captain Beefheart spirit from “Hair Pie, Bake 1.”
But beyond the average seven-and-a-half-minute song length, the primary concern remains the excessive academia. If Urbini does anything more spectacularly than play jazz drums that sound like they are being orchestrated by eight limbs, it to is take this Varèse quote to the max: “Science permits music to progress […] by revealing to our senses harmonies and sensations before unfelt.” Sans a crash course in quantum mechanics, the concept of music rooted in “perturbation molecular theory” does seem a shade excessive. Apt…but highly suspicious.
Time-signature and tempo-changes are mere child’s play. The strongest weapon in Resistencia Chacon’s arsenal is their downright anarchic song structure: most of these songs have at least four movements within them, which I imagine have caused Xzibit to somewhere quietly mumble to himself, “Yo dawg, I heard you like songs, so we put songs in your songs, so you can song while you song.” Skip to the two minutes, 40 seconds mark of “El Mal” (track one), or my favorite at four minutes, 42 seconds of track eight, and continue from there.
The proposition is downright outrageous without active listening, but the beauty of this group is in its ability to make its audience take a step back to enjoy the big picture.