Zafakon

Zafakon

Release

release date: December 6th, 2015

label: independent

This band from Puerto Rico, along with fellow Puerto Rican thrashers Calamity, recently did a tour of the United States, including the state of Washington. They played in Everett on January 2nd, 2016. Zafakon is a thrash/groove band with growling and on the night of January 2nd they put on a show with much conviction, even though they had been traveling a lot throughout the United States and they were tired. Once they were on stage, the energy kicked in and they performed in a professional way. In a live setting, Zafakon is a headbanging, thrashing band and they have a serious work ethic on the stage. By the time they made it to Everett, they had had some playing experience on the tour and they sounded like a band that has been working well for a while, with a good understanding of what everyone is doing.

They have some chugging parts, some thrashing riffs, but they also have melodies and memorable parts that work well for the songs, even though part of the band's sound is heaviness and all, the use of the guitar solos and melodies helps to round out the sound a lot. It's not just chugging sounds, they have spent time on the guitar work, and that's very enjoyable.

The band comes from a thrash/extreme metal background and at times on the new album you can tell that they are heading in some new directions, perhaps a bit more in the direction of prog/groove and also some doom/dissonant sounds, but as of right now they have not abandoned the metal elements like thrashing riffs and guitar solos. The song "Valor y sacrificio" is an instrumental shredding, proggy piece, but that's not the only place where they shred, obviously.

The last song is called "III. Release" and it's a good example of the more experimental side of the band. The songs starts out a bit slow, a bit doom/prog/groove, but the melodies start to come out soon and as this epic number continues the slow, melodic guitar becomes master of the song, and the lead guitar embarks upon an expressive solo. By the way, this particular song is the one with which they ended the show in Everett and by the time the song ended people really liked it because of the slow, melodic guitar work.

To get a much better idea of the band listen to the album on Bandcamp.

discography:

Fall EP 2011

War as a Drug Full-length 2013

Release Full-length 2015

the album:

1.I. Conveyor of Shame 05:21

2.Twisted Brains 05:09

3.Ecosfear 05:50

4.Prevaricator 06:32

5.II. Sirens 05:19

6.Valor y sacrificio 04:38

7.Arbeit macht frei 04:25

8.Phantom Scream 04:23

9.The Optimist 03:43

10.III. Release 09:08

total time 54:28

This is the tour flyer.

www.zafakon.bandcamp.com

www.facebook.com/zafakon