Worldwide Metal: Costa Rica
In another edition of Worldwide Metal, where I travel the world (aka the internet) to see what countries have some bands that you need to check out. Today, we are traveling to the gap between North America and South America to the country of Costa Rica. With many popular bands north of them in Mexico and the legendary Sepultura from South American country Brazil, what does this country south of the Mexican border provide when it comes to metal?
First, we start with a band infusing industrial elements into the band’s sound with Dusk. Releasing their debut E.P. Eko in 2016, the band pushes heavy industrial and machine-like intensity into the band’s cavernous and unrelenting take on black metal. Following the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic, the band began writing and releasing music as fast as a blast beat, with one album a year since 2022. The band recently released their new album Industrie at the end of May of this year. A heavy, dark, foreboding and ominous sounding album that reminds me of Anaal Nathrakh in it’s punishing combination of rough production, aggressive drumming and shrieking vocals.
You can check out the band’s Spotify account HERE
Next up, another band infusing a different genre into black metal, but this time incorporating grindcore. The band Congeria created a hybrid with a rough demo like production of early second wave black metal, shrieking vocals in the vein of Leviathan, and aggressive instrumentation in the vein of Napalm Death. The band’s most recent album 2021’s Exitium Mentis instantly takes me back to the early 90’s and the rise of the Norwegian black metal scene with it’s sound and vocals. The band did also release a live album last year called ¿Vivo?. A great mixture of grindcore and black metal, tinged with the roots of the early Darkthrone in Its cavernous vocals and demo-like production.
You can check out the band’s Bandcamp page HERE as well as their Spotify page HERE
We now shift gears and go into the progressive and ambient death metal sound of Astriferous. Formed in 2018, and following several demos and an E.P. in 2020, the band officially released their debut album Pulsations From The Black Orb in 2023. Instantly reminding me of Portal in its ambient and ominous vocals, with chuggy and distorted elements of classic old school death metal from the Florida death metal scene. It scratches all those itches of bands infusing the progressive and technical elements of later Death albums but adding more darker elements like doom metal and atmosphere into the sound. Especially with the cavernous, heavily reverbed vocals on the debut album.
You can check out the band’s Spotify page HERE
The last band I will be covering today is a band that mixes black metal, speed metal and punk genres, maybe even some crust into their original sound. The band is Goat Rider from San José, Costa Rica. With three albums under their belt, the most recent being Evil X Evil in 2023, the band’s fusion of punk and harsh vocals reminds me a lot of the resurgence in blackened speed metal in the last ten years. With acts like Midnight and Hellripper, Goat Rider would instantly fit into an opening slot along with those acts. Paying tribute to the original first wave of black & heavy metal like Motörhead and Venom, while also adding punk rock intensity from acts like Millions of Dead Cops and Circle Jerks.
You can check out the Goat Rider’s Bandcamp page HERE and their Spotify page HERE
That’s going to do it for my time visiting the country of Costa Rica and another edition of Worldwide Metal. Costa Rica has a lot of good black metal and death metal. An underrated area of the extreme metal scene that needs more attention. Did you dig some of the bands I featured in this edition? Were there any bands you think other readers should check out? You can also let me know what country I should travel to next, so I can stamp my metal passport on my journey to discover Worldwide Metal.
