FONGUS

"Sobredosis de Metal" translates "Overdose of Metal" I've been told. Now how is than possible? If anyone visiting this site has ever experienced they've had too much Metal in their lives I strongly suggest you go somewhere else, like www.mtv.com or that tacky porn-site you were probably looking for while stumbling in here. The rest of you may slap my face and call me a paranoid Swedish bast'd, but doesn't the lead riff of opening song "Bala de Plata" sound exactly like 220 VOLT's "Heavy Christmas"? Er, hm... maybe. I don't know. Who cares. It's still 4 minutes of 1st class traditional Power/Heavy Metal songwriting, which later gets into some serious MAIDENesque guitar-harmony frenzy. In other words this LP gives a very different impression than their mega-rare Hard Rock predecessor "Metal" from 1983. "Cuarto 33" continues in a more standard, mid-paced HM style, followed by a real Power/Speed crusher "Atrapado", with lots of great harmony parts and tempochanges. Side A closes with "Metal Mortal", a fine instrumental, chock-full of those galloping MAIDEN/M FATE-style drums & riffs that all good Metal instrumentals seem to employ. Two things are by now quite clear to the listener: 1. FONGUS are great, diverse Metal songwriters. 2. They should have filled their sloppy, lameassed drummer full of tequila and put him on the last train to Tijuana before going into the studio. The production might not be that brilliant - far from it, but "Sobredosis..." isn't half the album it could have been mainly because of Mr Adrian "Plays-like-your-mom" Garcia. Si, muchos annoying. On the titletrack they take on Thrash and are messier than ever. They must have recorded the whole album throught some sort of compression filter, because everytime they speed up the sound becomes thinner than my boss' Metal vinyl collection. It's a shame because this is in itself a killer song - a real epic. "Por Tu Amor.." is the last nail in the coffin to bury all of FONGUS' aspirations to be a Speed Metal band. They are so much more tolerable when they do generic, mid-paced HM rather than sloppy, out-of-pace Speed. I wish I had more positive things to say about this elusive band, but this is it. I guess you'll have to weigh this album against the amount of chocolate you can buy for the same sum and follow your heart...

Ähnlich wie RAMSES existierten Fongus schon seit den 70's und hatten diverse LP's anzubieten, die aber eher Hard Rock-lastig einzustufen sind. So richtig lospowerten sie erst auf "Sobredosis de Metal", genau wie RAMSES auf ihrem 89er Werk "Guerreros del Metal". Lupenreiner Power/Speed Metal mit teilweise sehr verspielten Parts bei denen sie wirklich alles (und ich meine ALLES) zeigen was sie drauf haben! Und wenig ist das gerade nicht!
Überraschenderweise gehen sie stilistisch in etwa in die gleiche Richtung wie RAMSES, nur songtechnisch nicht ganz so obskur strukturiert. Minuspunkte muss ich lediglich beim Gesang geben, aber Vocals sind reine Geschmackssache. Wer auf größtenteils geradlinigen und melodischen Speed Metal gut kann, darf, nein quatsch, MUSS dieses Album (und "Guerreros del Metal" von RAMSES gleich mit) haben! Der Sound ist auch sehr dröhnend geworden...mir geht hier gleich (schon wieder) einer ab!

Like RAMSES existed Fongus already since the 1970's and had to offer various LP's which are to be classified as rather hard rockin'. They started revealing their full power on "Sobredosis de Metal", exactly like RAMSES on their 89th album "Guerreros del Metal". Of flawless Power/Speed Metal with partial very virtuous parts where they show everything of their skills! Stylistically they used to play in the same direction like RAMSES that time, only song-technically not completely so obscurely structured. I must give deficit points merely in the vocal section, but vocals are a pure taste thing. Sound has also become very roaring. In the end "Sobredosis de Metal" remains a mainly straight yet melodic Speed Metal classic just like "Guerreros del Metal" of RAMSES (which has a bit more obscure parts) which both you shouldn't miss at all!