LP Review: Reino Ermitaño - Reino Ermitaño (2019 Re-Issue)

It has been sixteen years since Reino Ermitaño released their legendary self-titled album. What has been an insider tip for a long time has now been re-released via Peruvian/German record label Necio Records. And there it is now: Reino Ermitaño's masterpiece "Reino Ermitaño", thirteen tracks of bluesy, gloomy Doom Metal, almost an hour of beautiful darkness, musical depth, and gorgeous melodies.
For those of my readers who speak Spanish as well as I do: Reino Ermitaño means The Hermit's Kingdom.

Reino Ermitaño are a four-piece band from Peru's capital Lima. Their genre obviously is Doom Metal, and why they might have been disregarded in Europe, Reino Ermitaño have attained cult status amogst Latin American Metal and Doom lovers. And I must say, Reino Ermitaño deserve to be cult in any way. Their music is way more than just another band playing distorted Blues riffs, adding a little Pentagram- or St. Vitus-like Heavy Metal here and there... you know what I mean, but that's not the case! Reino Ermitaño's Doom Metal is in several ways indiosyncratically beautiful:

The most outstanding unique feature on first sight are Tania's lyrics which are completely performed in Spanish. In a harmonic but harsh, elegant but heavy manner she lets her voice float over the massive construct built by the rest of the band. Then there is the riffing: an omni-present, warm but intense bass line which is the perfect link between rhythm and melody. Marcos' bass intensifies every beat of the drumwork and at the same creates the perfect nether layer for each riff, lick or solo on the guitar. Speaking of which: guitar player Eloy makes me smile with every note he plays. Clean pickings in uncommonly beautiful elegantly mince over the beats, brachially heavy riffs drive the band's songs forward, and every then and when there's a great lick or solo adding the Heavy Metal feeling and giving goosebumps. Last but not least Ñaka on the drums: the backbone of the doomy, dark and gorgeous world Reino Ermitaño create with their sound. The drums thurst forward like a million tons clockwork working with both, great intensity and precision.

And then there's the holisitic work of Reino Ermitaño. The album caught me from the first song, and I somehow want to sacrifice something for Satan now... but let's finish the text first!
Reino Ermitaño's re-edited debut album is an amazing opus of occult, blues-driven heavy Doom Metal. From the beginning to the end "Reino Ermitaño" is an album full of gloomy-warm surprisesm beautiful melodies, pitch-black harmonies, and the constant urge to bang your head to the halting beats.
Love it!