I would say that Chilean band Hastatus are definitely worth a listen, especially if you are a Maiden, Ryche, or DT fan.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Hastatus
ALBUM: Lethal Pride
LABEL: Self Released
YEAR: 1999
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Chile
LINEUP: Felipe Mira – vocals * Roberto Meiss – drums * Jose Tomas Sauvalle – bass * Sebastian Theune – guitars * Rodrigo Perez-Gazitua – guitars
TRACK LISTING: 01 Lethal Pride * 02 Hastatus * 03 Hole * 04 Frightened Child * 05 Sorrow * 06 By My Own * 07 Remember You * 08 Deep In Time * 09 Turn And Fight * 10 Deep In Time (diff ver)
Background
You don’t get too many English speaking rock bands coming out of Chile. A beautiful part of the world admittedly, but you’d normally expect the Kings Spanish to be sung with a majority of these bands. Not so with Hastatus.
Very professional sounding outfit they are, taking equal parts of Iron Maiden and Queensryche styled metal, and throwing a Dream Theater like prog-blanket over the whole package. The unique thing with their sound is that they throw some lovely Spanish flavoured acoustic guitar into the mix. You know how South Americans are renowned for their flamenco talents? These guys are not far off.
The Songs
Starting out though, we get the impressive prog flavoured entrance of ‘Lethal Pride’. Wow, check out the amazing soundscape introduction which takes all of 1.15 minutes, before kicking in with some HM approved guitar riffs. ‘Hastatus’ the second track in, is heavy on the Iron Maiden influence, particularly Felipe Mira’s Bruce Dickinson‘s vocal improvisation.
Rich acoustic guitar is a feature throughout ‘Hole’, a lovely tune which never strays far from the ballad boundary. ‘Frightened Child’ also keeps it in check, a piano intro, and a restrained verse/chorus combo sees this track in the zone of Queensryche‘s ‘Empire’.
‘Be My Own’ follows suit, not really a track with the brakes let loose unfortunately. That situation is remedied on ‘Remember You’, where the band finally loosen the shackles with excellent results. Things get slightly over-complicated on the 6 minute plus epic of ‘Turn And Fight’, as only true prog rockers can do. Lots of shifting passages here, but they keep it interesting nonetheless.
In Summary
Despite the fact that there are many keyboard layers evident, there is no mention of a keyboardist. However, one good thing is that the entire album is downloadable off the Iuma website. I would say that Hatstatus are definitely worth a listen, especially if you are a Maiden, Ryche, or DT fan. Grab a load of South American prog metal before it disappears off the map.
