Catalan metal, a story that had to be told

Barcelona[In this article, we also call heavy metal metal, with an open accent, as recommended by Termcat, but we keep metal, without an accent, in stylistic denominations, such as black metal, death metal and thrash metal]

"Perhaps it is not the best moment for metal, nor the best moment for Catalan metal" Farrús, one of the three authors, along with Eduard Cremades and Dani Morell, of the book History and power of Catalan metal (Enderrock Books, 2025) It's the best time, both quantitatively and qualitatively. In 2024, between January and September, the authors of this book counted more than two hundred metal concerts in Catalan. They opened the box of riffs. "We're lucky that there's everything in Catalan," Farrús recalls. underground, often invisible in many programming, but resilient by nature and more connected to the present of international metal than much of the Rock Fest lineup.

In this ecosystem there are solid thrash bands like the Cardoninos Siroll!, references like the Terrassenses Crystals in the Blood (which emerged from black metal and are now considering progressive metal), the relentless deathgrind of Barcelona's Ósserp, the folk metal of Valencia's Curial and Barcelona's Hoz de Fetillera, the doom of Calderón's Udol, the more classic heavy metal of Terrassa's Forja, and the alternative metal of Mallorca's Helevorn. Some collaborate with poets, such as Vallenca's Urgila with Antonia Vicenç Carbonell. Some often play in Europe, such as Osona's Tibosity, and the American label Noxious Ruin has released albums by Barcelona's Bocc, such as Sweet death in the mud of the Rec Comtal (2022) and The forging of skulls (2024).

They discuss all of this in a book that is essential for Catalan culture, because it documents, explains, and records a reality that remains outside the scope of conventional narrative. The first part ofHistory and power of Catalan metal contextualizes this story both chronologically and thematically, with very interesting chapters on politics, language, literature, and the presence of women in metal. There's both enthusiasm and criticism, pointing out grievances, but avoiding victimhood. Rock Fest, the international metal festival in Santa Coloma de Gramanet, has only programmed one band in ten years that sang primarily in Catalan: Los Guardians del Pont. "On the other hand, you go to Hellfest in France, and in addition to Pantera, Obituary, or Sepultura, you'll see several very good French bands that sing in French. This is what we miss here. If you program Siroll! even early in the morning, many viewers could discover them," says Morell. Accustomed to going straight to the point, Catalan metal isn't sitting idly by. Journalist Jordi Meya, along with promoter Hello Cleveland and the Blood Fire Death agency, have organized the Catalunya Triomfant festival, on September 11 at the Paral·lel 62 venue in Barcelona. Cristales en la Sangre, ¡Siroll!, Ósserp, Udol, Bocc, and Assot will perform: a night of extreme metal with tickets priced at 20 euros (advance) and 25 euros (at the box office).

The second part of the book is a census of 500 bands and artists with their corresponding discography. "It's been a project that took more than two years, and we decided to close it in December 2024," Morell recalls. "Since we finished the book, twelve more bands have already appeared that sing in Catalan, whether they're new bands or groups that previously sang in English or Spanish and have now recorded a song in Catalan. There are about forty remakes. Catalan metal is in full swing." Among the new releases are: Wounds, an EP by the Reus grindcore band Neguit, and others that are recorded in Metal Magazine, on X's Instagram account Catalan Metal and on the Spotify list Catalan Metal, which includes more than 2,600 songs in Catalan. "And yet there are many bands that don't want to be on Spotify and use Bandcamp," Farrús explains.

40 years of Catalan metal

The book by Farrús, Cremades, and Morell is the result of personal knowledge, documentation, and, especially, the collaboration of all those involved. It could have been an oral history, like Touched by the Wing: Oral History of Catalan Rock, by Oriol Rodríguez (Contra, 2018)But the authors preferred to let the narrative, albeit a choral one, prevail in the format. "We've spoken with 95% of the more than 500 bands that appear in the book. This has made our work easier, because the people involved have collaborated with great enthusiasm," says Farrús. Catalan metal did have someone who wrote to them, then. "In some cases, it's been difficult to find them, because bands like Pulmons Negres have been playing for a long time, or because they don't have social media. But in these two years, we've ended up forging friendships with many of the musicians," explains Morell.

Of course, the authors' metallic intuition helps, all three with stories of sufficiently early initiation that have later transitioned to other experiences linked to metal. Dani Farrús, born in 1975, was 12 or 13 years old when "cassettes of Iron Maiden, Helloween, and Metallica started circulating around school." "The first issue of the magazine Metal Hammer that I bought must have been in 1988. I hid it like it was a porn magazine, because everything heavy metal had a bad reputation," he recalls with a tender smile. For Morell, born in 1978, the epiphany came around 1990 with Iron Maiden. "A friend and I bought a T-shirt; we actually asked our parents to buy them. And around 1994 I was already buying records on my own," says Morell. Cremades, who was born in 1983, delves into metal with the album Roots (1996) from Sepultura.

In the 1980s, when the three were minors, Catalan metal was barely making its mark. The pioneers were Barcelona's Tro, at least conceptually. Stray dogs in 1985, and the song titles were also in Catalan. But... it's an instrumental album," explains Farrús. However, a few years later, Tro was already releasing material in Catalan. Reina Negra from Palafrugell also had pioneering status, having performed the song in concerts in 1982. The orgies of the living room, which they finally included on the compilation album Coven (2021). Sangtraït was the most popular Catalan heavy metal band of the eighties and nineties, but at the same time a stimulating extreme metal scene was incubating that was reflected in contemporary international references, attracted by the speed of grindcore (the ferocity of the blast beat (of the drums) and the injection of death metal, with those abysmal tunings and harmonic drops. In this context, in which bands like the British Napalm Death were very influential, groups like the Badalona-based pioneers Skudella de Sangre from Pork Podrit; Karn de Olla, from San Sadurní de Anoia; and the super-wild Sabbatta Rotta, from Vilaller (Alta Ribagorça) emerged. "In Barcelona, more thrash metal was made in Spanish or English [bands like Legion and Ktulu], and outside the metropolitan area there was extreme metal in Catalan," says Farrús. But the history of metal, and also that of metal in Catalan, constantly challenges stereotypes. ÚItimos de Cuba, from the Barcelona neighborhood of Roquetes, in Nou Barris, recorded at least one song in Catalan, Minute twenty-seven. And the Barcelona-based Entropia moved from punk-hardcore to the most extreme metal while maintaining Catalan and their anti-fascist ideology.

Language and the importance of references

Morell speaks of the importance of "the accumulation of references" to connect with the language. "If you only have Sangtraït or Todos los Santos, a couple of bands will emerge that copy them, but when you have more and more varied groups, there is feedback. That's what happened to me in the nineties," says Farrús. "I liked Sangtraït, but then I disowned it because I wasn't into hea, I disowned it because I wasn't into hea; there wasn't any in Catalan. That's why when I played in a band, I wrote the lyrics in English. On the other hand, now young people do have many references in Catalan." Then there are formal issues that favor Catalan. "The Ósserp told us that the abundance of monosyllables was very good for them," recalls Morell. Incidentally, the concern for the language led the authors of the book to conduct a survey to decide whether they would write metal either metal, in which poet Enric Casasses and writer and verbivore Màrius Serra participated, both of whom were in favor of the accent, as also proposed by Termcat. "It was a very interesting debate," Morell admits.

The combative component

Metal has been subjected to lazy interpretations that have tried to reduce it to four clichés: escapism, refuge for childish behavior, lack of poetic sophistication, disconnection from sociopolitical reality... These are considerations made from ignorance, sometimes with an implicit classism that did not want to accept the validity of confronting power with volume and a faith in the defensive values of aggressiveness, and that despite a certain fatalism did not renounce the transformative desire of society. as critic Oriol Rosell explains in the essay A great short circuit (Apha Decay, 2024).

"Ska, punk and hardcore are supposed to be eminently political styles, and metal isn't, because it was Tolkien and the witches... But on Black Sabbath's second album there's already War pigs", explains Farrús, recalling an anti-war song permeated by class consciousness: it is the powerful who send the poor to war. The protagonist of Breaking the law, the 1980 anthem by British band Judas Priest, is an unemployed man who has been harmed by the neoliberal policies of Margaret Thatcher's government. Napalm Death has always maintained left-wing and unionist positions... And the documentary Global metal (2008), by filmmaker Scot McFadyen and anthropologist Scot Dunn, highlighted the role of metal as a catalyst for protests around the world, especially in non-Western societies. In the Catalan case, Farrús, Morell, and Cremades have noted a vindictive content in many bands. "There is anti-fascism, social protest, and denunciation of anti-immigrant policies (like the album Aamamat of the Mallorcans Helevorn), and also groups with an independence conscience," says Farrús.