Zaraza are a doom/sludge band from Ecuador. This is their third album.
Zaraza play experimental industrial-tinged doom/sludge metal. Slow, dreary, and utterly without hope.
Coming across as a corrupted, harsh, doomed-out version of Godlflesh, alongside a sprinkling of other influences here and there, (Rabies Caste, Burning Witch, Neurosis, and Earth, in places), this is nihilistic, hope-draining music, filled with misery and disillusionment.
Sparse and minimal, the music is nonetheless added to and enhanced by industrial sounds and experimental noises. These lurk alongside the main delivery of despair-inducing repetition that characterises the guitars.
The vocals flit between jaded shouts and spoken word. The vocalist’s voice works perfectly alongside the ponderous music and effortlessly conveys the heartache, pain, and hopelessness of existence.
This is slow, ugly, heavy music. You’d listen to this and wonder why you ever bother doing anything.
Reading what I have written above, you’d be forgiven for asking why you would ever want to listen to this album. Well, the simple answer is because it is very, very good. Everything here is very well-performed and the band’s brand of misery-inducing woe is wonderfully realised. It’s also surprisingly addictive and more-ish; you keep getting drawn back to Zaraza’s darkness.
This album takes me back to when I first discovered Godflesh in the 90s; it has the same kind of feeling, only slower and more nihilistic and nasty. Zaraza have impressed with this release, and although Spasms of Rebirth is undoubtedly not for everyone, if you appreciate a bit of unrelenting suffering, then I heartily recommend that you check this out.
Wonderbox Metal 