“Leprosario Lazareto” is already the sixth album from THORNAFIRE, one of the most interesting Chilean Death Metal acts. The band continues with their tradition of doing mainly songs in Spanish, with lyrics that are covering anti-religious themes and critics towards organized religions. However, this new record loosely refers to an isolation hospital for people with infectious diseases, especially leprosy or plague. Certainly a forbidding subject matter was deliberately taken here. THORNAFIRE’s origin already dates back to 1998 and it is clear that they are a pack that knows exactly what and how they want to play. They have their original style, combining sharp and uncompromising riffs with eerie melodies. As in their whole discography THORNAFIRE combine rambling tech Thrash riffing with anthemic Death Metal into a style that is both accessible and ready to rip your heart from your chest. Following the tradition, the new album is also a very varied one. It’s abrupt and straight forward, almost like mechanized chaos, elegance to technical wizardry, all in the blink of an eye. The band freely takes inspiration from old classic Death Metal and adds a Black Metal atmosphere to it. As the record begins, the first two tracks, ‘El Coro De Los Hambrientos En Tus Oídos Conchetumadre’ and ‘Leprosario Lazareto’ exhibit THORNAFIRE’s high octane approach: raging technicality and interesting harmonies. Sinister Death Metal vocals in their native tongue and a bass sound designed to move the very bowels of hell make sure to bring attention to this band’s unique approach. Afterwards, variations come in abundance, as the acoustic guitar in ‘La Red Que Nos Mantiene Unidos’ (The Network That Keeps Us Together) is an influence of groups from the ’90s, like ADRAMELECH, FUNEBRE, PURTENANCE and many others have done on their first albums. The interesting thing about THORNAFIRE is, besides maintaining strong technical doses, that the essence of everything is still in the way. The guitar manages to be brutal and with a lot of groove, like in ‘The Great Deceiver’, and with songs like ‘Saturn’, ‘Diogenes De sinope’ or ‘Fuego’, that also feature synths, they just blow your mind. It’s quite a spell as “Leprosario Lazareto” was recorded four times in different studios, and finally was recorded in Poland (Metalowa Demencja Studio) and Santiago (Arrebol Studio). But the record still manages to offer a pristine production with a fitting sound and fittingly ends with ‘Gracias Por Entregarnos 37 Minutos De Tu Vida’, which is loosely translated as ‘Thank you for giving us 37 minutes of your life’. So, for Metalheads who can’t get enough of technically brutal Death Metal, there is nothing better to explore than another THORNAFIRE record from the suburbs of Santiago. To find out more about the band and record, please visit www.facebook.com/thornafire, www.facebook.com/greatdanerecords.