Band: The Undead Family
Album title: En El Silencio
Label: Casket Music - Copro
Distributor: PHD
Release date: 23/03/2009
Release: CD

Seeking to occupy himself with something quite different from his main band, Mistweaver singer/ guitarist Raul Puente Tobalina started the Burgos (Bask county, Spain) based The Undead Family side project as a Stoner Rock (in the line of Grand Magus, Cathedral and Spirituall Beggars) in 2002, aided in this by drummer Mario Peña Corral, whom joined after several conversations about the musical direction the project was to follow.
In order for their “family” to function, they needed to enlist additional members, the first of which would be guitarist Raul “Vidu” Vidueros Del Campo. Together, they composed the band’s first songs, which would see life through the band’s first self-titled 5-track demo in 2003. After that, the family was enlarged with the addition of Avalon bassist Miguel, and in August 2004 this outfit (with the aid of keyboardist Joaquin Velasco Navarro) released their full-length Party In Hell (a 10 song plus intro and outro which contained 3 re-recorded songs off the demo). From the beginning of his joining the band, it was understoof that Miguel would not be able to empower the band indefinitely, as his journey to the band’s Burgos rehearsal room was a long and heavy one, and so “Súper” (Agonia’s Diego Diaz Martino) too over bass duties. The band was completed when Navarro joined, aided in his decision by the nice way his keyboard parts had come through on the album.
With that line-up, the “family” started promoting their album at many concerts, but bad luck continued to follow the band when Súper moved away from Burgos and could therefore no longer be a family member. After a long search, the family eventually addopted Cronometrobudu bassist Paxti Pablo. After acquainting him to their material, the band set off on more concert playing, occasionally supporting some of the bigger Spanish Metal acts (among which the classic Obus) and performing at some key festivals (among which Crucerockand Cebollarock). The family started composing new songs, the music of which was recorded at the band’s home studio between May and December of 2007 (the vocals, mixing and mastering were done later in 2008 at the Estudios 5 in a collaboration between the band and Yon De La Camara). In early November, Paxti leaves the band on amical terms for strictly personal reasons…a sad moment for the band who’s appreciated all the hard work the bassist had put into the band during his tenure with them. Less than a week later, the sadness is turned into joy with the announcement that Puente’s bandmate in Mistweaver and Pathfinder, Daniel “Dani” Ortega (also known to have played with Belyerath) was found eager enough to join the family…and even more joy came when a deal was signed with Casket Music that same week!
The band presented their new material for the first time at Burgos’ Coliseum on February 28, and I’m sure that the people attending noticed  that the sound of the new songs divergess somewhat from that of the band’s earlier batch of songs. Indeed, as times passed on, the guys adopted a more straight Metal approach…which nevertheless still has plenty of Doom elements remaining from the band’s Stoner days. Obviously, there’s some variety in the fierceness of the music, as there àre a the occasional calmer passages within some of the songs, and then there’s also the semi-acoustic instrumental “1377” (euhm…correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t that the year Spain saw the installation of the Inquisition?! Evidently, you’ll find the keyboardist’s integration of piano keyboards into the music to be coming to the fore more clearly in the calmer passages…which don’t mean that you’ll not find that instrument (or something with that sound) played in more exhilerated passages as well! Puente’s vocals are varied according to the songs’ needs, ranging from soft clean singing to more aggressive vocals which are a mix of a grunt and a groan, and occasionally there’s even a spoken word styled groan, mixed with something of a whisper...but overall they add a Death touch to the whole. During the song “El Final De Mi Vida” (yeah…that title puts you on the right track of thought when you’re assuming the lyricas are done in the band’s native language – which is Spanish, and thankfully not the Bask variety, because that I wouldn’t be able to understand), he gets aided (well, in retrospect, she gets to do most of the lyrics) by one Begoña Garcia (sorry, I was unable to find this person’s connection to the world of music, and I doubt very much that she might be the professional basketball player for the Venezia team) for a nice female/male duet.
Check it all out for yourself by surfing to myspace.com/theundeadfamily, where you’ll find 5 songs off the new album! Next up? We can only hope that the people at Casket Music will be able to organize a UK tour for the band, and that the band will also be able to play some gigs in our neighberhood on their way over there (or on their return homewards).

87/100

Tony.