I can truly say my obsession with, at first, Brazilian, then encompassing all of Mexico, central, and south American punk and metal started with a forca macabra (from Finland) video that was purchased by a dear friend in maybe 2003. Prior to this I was a self proclaimed "diehard punk!!!!"At any rate, in this video There is a scene in witch a member of the band is showing off his Brazilian collection laying one on top of the other commenting as they drop. I could only pick out band names and his deep "heavy metal" belly laugh,  but man these album covers looked killer!

as I said, up until this point in my life i listened to what i considered to be strictly punk ( discharge, crass, napalm death, and so on) carcass  being kosher on the grounds that they were on early earache). and i dug hard, but digging was very challenging with out the internet,(it was around but i was too broke to afford a computer) blindly buying from record stores with only old zines to reference...  anyway,   I felt that I had enough with  punk and wanted something new.  I found it in third world metal. this also coincided with me having steady internet access to search for new bands, with the exception of the bigger Brazilian bands who got records out in the us like ratos de porao, sepultura, or  olho seco who did a few comp. appearances this stuff was untouchable to me living in detroit, and not having the downloading resources i needed. so I got a hold of what i could on cd reissue, and the rest i got with the daunting task of mixtape trading (sigh)  anyway fast forward to 2012 where 15 years of digging for punk and metal has put me absolutely NOWHERE!!! but here... so let me share some great stuff with you and as always happy hunting......

(I bet you thought this was gonna be a metal post jejejejejeje!!!)




first we have the mighty and colombian RESTOS DE TRAGEDIA who called the hilly and fukkin mean streets of Medellin home. sharing a member (Ramon Restrepo) with the pioneering metal bands Parabellum, and Blasfemia. all three of these bands have a similar sound, raw and vicious. if discharges sound can be likened to a giant door slamming in the depths of hell, then RDT can be likened to this same door getting slammed over and over till it falls off, then melted down to make cymbals and strings for their next record.  desperate, savage, bulldozing, whirlwind, rockfall, anvil, axehammer, proto-grind is an under statement with 2 releases in the 80's "medellin presenta A:"  7" in 1988, and the "ser y no ser" 7" in '88 as well  and then doing a few comp tracks in 1990 on "la cuidad podrida"

a reissue of all there material is available from these web sites...

u.s. www.hellsheadbangers.com
europe www.foadrecords.it  


here is a track from "ser y no ser"

next up is atoxxxico from Mexico. not exactly SOUTH america, but the location of one of the three great empires in the pre-Columbian Americas. I'm not sure what city these guys are from, but man does this rip!!!!!
putting out the "television" demo a 7" called "punks de mierda" and an lp called "tu tienes la razon". atoxxico assault your ears with a fairly clean bass sound. but the guitars man,  the guitars are a grinding scraping mess that have a haunting almost hollow quality to them. the vocals are just how i like them. tough, shouted not "screamed", in a low gruff angry as hell monotone chant... I love it....  arrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

 a label called huarache records released all of this material on a cd i beleve it is still available heres a link...

www.angelfire.com/music2/.../huarache.html

here is a vid from there 90 lp

next up is a band that i just discovered called BSB.H starting with a split lp with stuhlzapfchen von "n" called "ataque as hordas do poder" in 1986. there first track is a weird one with some gang chanting as the drums go at a mid pace stomp, then then the face melting happens on track 2 I am immediately reminded of the almighty G.I.S.M. mostly because of the vocals, as I listened on none of the offsetting nature that is found in every nook and cranny of the dense and layered sound of G.I.S.M. just the low venomous growl of sakevi that also could translate into sounding kinda death metal but that's as far as they go into metal territory... on this release. the lp from 89 is middle of the road skate-core (moan) kinda boring, but check it out for your self. NOW! There stuff from 91 is a different story coming into a tightened up and more crossover/deaththrash sound maturing nicely for my tastes!!! anyhow here are some vid from each album...

well thats all I care to write for now if anybody reading this has info on these bands please share all you know in the comments. thanks !!!!!!!!