Lista de Bandas Heavy Rock Resistencia (VEN) Hecho en Venezuela

Hecho en Venezuela by Dan Edman.

Finding a copy of this record (or most other early South American Metal records) in Mint condition is just about unheard of. If you’re a mint-or-bust type collector, be prepared to pay up. If you, like me, can settle with a playable vg/vg copy it’s not too impossible to find for about €50-€70, given you have some good contacts.
I bought this record simply on recommendation (thx Hasse!) at a local record fair and it turned out to be a real find. (Pathetic incident: I later recommended this LP to another collector. His answer: “Sorry, I don’t collect South American records”. No wonder “record collector” is considered an insult amongst many..) “Hassan..” is a J. PRIESTified kick in the groin.

The kind of hard post-70’s metal sound that made albums like “Sin After Sin” and “Stained Class” to such groundbreaking classics.. “Angeles..” is a slower (but not softer) and more epic piece which for a few seconds in the middle of the song sound more like JUDAS PRIEST than JUDAS PRIEST ever did.
Then it comes, this rabid monster of a song! “Tierra Prometida” is like Thor The Thundergod galloping over the South American midnight sky on his 8-legged horse Sleipner, both of them juiced up on Venezuela’s finest uncut cocaine!
Fuckin’ raging METAL that took most of the US scene another 5 years to match. Side B has slightly less epic songs, but is none the less powerful, with 2 particular standouts: “Muerto en Vida”, a real crusher and definitely the fastest song on the album, and the almost doom “Resistencia”, another brilliant song well worthy of being a theme-song for the band.

RESISTENCIA are even more ahead of their time than their legendary countrymen ARKANGEL. Unlike them they never border on Rock/R’n’R, but stay consistantly on the narrow Metal path and are also more dynamic in their songwriting. Despite my repeated reference to another old classic act I would still say they had a sound of their own.
There’s an exotic, almost graceful vibe throughout the album, not only due to the fine vocal performance of César Alberto Somoza Torres. Must be their indian genes. The band produced 3 records between ’81-84. 2nd LP “Estrategia Contra el Movimiento” (82) I’ve recently got a CDR-copy of and it's a Total Metal MONSTER! More info to come as soon as someone can hook me up with the vinyl. 3rd effort “Dacapo” is less heavy and slightly more progressive, but still with one foot in the metal-sphere. However, most agree that “Hecho..” and "Estrategia..." are both essetials in any collection.






Pioneering and mighty
Written by Condor_Lord on January 19th, 2005

Sadly forgotten, Hecho en Venezuela (Made In Venezuela) stands as one of the first metallic productions of the continent, together with fellow country men Arkángel's debut and the early works of Riff from Argentina (a band that was kind of far away of the metalness portrayed by the two Venezuelan acts), and previous to anything V8 ever recorded -still, they are acknowledged as the forefathers of metal in our continent by most people.
But this album is a masterpiece not just because of it's historical value -depicted by such a tongue in cheek album title-: this is one of the finest traditional metal pieces ever recorded, capturing all the power that was being developed at that point in the UK, but with an original touch provided not only by the spanish vocals (the most notorious and ovious difference), but also by several rythmic variations that were strange to British metal in general, as well as very innovative bass lines and some abrupt breaks that weren't seen in the global scene until thrash appeared.

The music is aggresive and it's mixed with a sometimes melancholic and sometimes adventurous vocal line that is quite interesting, being very clean -although, if it has to be harsh, some exceptions can be made as in Hassan Ben Sabbath's chorus or the last verse of Muerto en Vida (Living Dead)- and moving in a weird gray zone between low ranges and high ones. It's, in general terms, a very fast album; it's biggest influence would be, in my opinion, Priest's Stained Class, mixed with some of the raw power the NWOBHM had acquired at that point and the melodic side of that same movement as well: you can see some riffs ala Blitzkrieg in songs like Templo de la Oscuridad (Temple In The Dark) or Tierra Prometida (Promised Land) and some that are even heavier and "thrash predicting", but you can also capture powerful melancholic songs like Ángeles Cayendo, where early Quartz comes to mind with ease. A honorable mention goes to Muerto en Vida, the heaviest song on the album and one of the most memorable I've ever heard, showing the perfect balance between aggresion and melody.

Lyrically, the band experiments with some historical tale telling, as in Tierra Prometida, that deals with the Jewish exile of Egypt (the "Exodus") or the mystical Templo de la Oscuridad; some personal rebellious issues, as in Pared de Concreto (Concrete Wall) and Muerto en Vida or even the song Resistencia (Resistance) that predicts further experiments with social issues as a main topic; and some that move between those two main topics with rather ambiguous lyrics, like Hassan Ben Sabbath, the most complex song on the album.

It's really a brilliant effort without a low point, highly recommended.