Album Review: Bala – Maleza

May 22, 2021 | Reviewed By Fraser Kerr

Spanish duo BALA are back with their third album – and Century Media debut – ‘Maleza’. Their first two albums have been received well, helping them tour beyond the boundaries of their homeland and making it into the UK, Japan, and Australia.

Kicking us right into the album we have the single, ‘Agitar’. Exploding into a raucous of noise from pounding drums to meaty sounding guitars, it’s hard to believe it’s only coming from two people. Anxela Baltar’s voice pushes through the noise with a lot of passion behind it. ‘Agitar’ really knows what it wants to do and does it, coming in at barely over two minutes, wasting no time, and leading straight into ‘Hoy No’. A quick memorable track that’ll stay on your mind after listening to it.

The simply titled ‘X’ is anything but simple, hooking you in with a strong riff, and moving to a bit more of a melodic styling, we see a different side to Anxela’s vocals. Despite it’s barely two minute length, the song’s full of energy and feels like it’ll be great live, I can really see the circle pits going for this one. The shortest track on the album is then followed by the longest, ‘Mi Orden’s electric feeling guitars pump out right off the bat. The song really helps to show Anxela’s vocal range, switching between powerful screams to euphonious vocals during the track.

We’re then led into ‘Cien Obstáculos’, which has a really interesting riff that draws you in right away, which sits pleasantly above Violeta Mosquera’s marching drums. There’s a great beat as the song progresses and we’re presented with complementing vocals from both Anxela and Violeta. I’d really recommend this one.

‘Quieres Entrar’ provides us with a quieter moment on the album, with the first thirty seconds being a softer melody. It almost feels like a little moment of reflection. The song then explodes with the energy you’ve come to expect from the duo. While I do like the buzzing guitars in this track, I can’t help but feel it just drags on a little too long, feeling repetitive.

Taking a less aggressive style but keeping the album’s energy pumping, ‘Rituais’ follows. It’s definitely one of the highlights of the album for me. ‘Bessie’ catches you with it’s opening riff, and keeps you listening with it’s music alone, with the majority of the song being instrumental. Once Anxela’s distinctive screams kick in, the song feels like it’s pushing you to the end of the track. ‘Una Selva’ takes it a little bit slower than most on the album, but still has quite the bounce to it as it ends the album, giving you more of what you’ve come to expect from the duo. Powerful vocals, great drumming, and big sounding riffs.

The band present a good level of energy throughout the album, and their unique sound is great, pulling influences from all over the rock, punk, and metal scene, however I did find a lot of the tracks seemed to merge together as nothing made them feel distinct. Despite this, I wouldn’t say the album’s bad, and I’ll definitely be checking them out next time they tour as a lot of the tracks feel like they’d be better experienced live.

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