Review by Vladimir on July 25, 2023.

It’s been a while since I last checked some thrash metal, so I’ll be covering a band from Puerto Rico called Transgresión and their second full-length album ...En Un Lugar Harto De Odio..., released on December 20th 2022 via Inriri Discos. 

When it comes to Transgresion’s overall musical output on this album, the majority of it is your expected thrash metal riffing with heavy down-picking guitars, hardcore punk drumming or occasional mid-tempo drumming and hilariously aggressive shouting vocals with lyrics in Puerto Rican, while also providing other bits like guitar melodies and guitar solos. The only thing that deviates this from your standard thrash metal is that the style leans more towards hardcore punk, something that’s very reminiscent of bands like Iron Reagan, Ratos De Porão, DRI, SOD, later Exploited etc. The songs themselves, albeit heavy and full of rage, for some reason don’t seem all that attention worthy and I personally didn’t find them all that memorable or spectacular at any given moment. The riffs do try their best to make the song as heavy as possible, but the general problem that I have with this album is that it’s for the most part all too similar, basically just one song template that’s applied from one track to another, including the riffs, the arrangements and the guitar solos. The solos in particular are really random at best, mostly utilizing some sort of improvisations or tremolo soloing, both of which really aren’t all that captivating or attention-worthy and it seems like they were just placed for the sake of it. It doesn’t help that much when you have a very long 11-minute instrumental, that being the sixth track 'Luciérnagas De Fuego', which has constant guitar soloing from start to finish, even after a short clean guitar interlude which tricked me into believing that it will take a break. I don’t know about you, but in my opinion the solos should really serve as a payoff that will really make you go crazy once you get to that part of the song, while here they are just all over the place and random at best, not really something I would consider worthy for a material that would make you lose your mind. The cover art for the album is quite unusual but unique in a way, which looks like some ink drawing on a piece of wood, though I personally didn’t find the artwork all too fitting for the music and it’s probably a bit too avant-garde for thrash metal. Production-wise, it sounds quite solid overall, the good part is that there was a respectable treatment to the heavy guitar tone and drums, while the vocals on the other hand might sound a bit off and not properly polished in the mixing and mastering process. 

Honestly, when it comes Transgresion’s second album ...En Un Lugar Harto De Odio..., I was really hoping that I would enjoy this one, but sadly I didn’t. The album is just a colossal disappointment and I really struggled to sit through its total runtime of 56 minutes, even trying desperately to find something that would really deserve some praise or mention. I haven’t checked out this band’s past works and I am not sure I will, but I personally suggest that you skip this one and look for something better. 

Rating: 4.9 out of 10