A Sad Bada - White Rivers and Coldest Chains ...

If the funereal raw sounds heard in Sangria (here) exceed your limits, but you are one of those doom lovers who enjoy heaviness coupled with some atmospheres and you are also driven by curiosity about “exotic” scenes, like, for example, South American underground panorama, well, A Sad Bada is for you!

Band A Sad Bada is part of the outstanding underground doom scene in Chile. Differently from Sangria, Bicefalo, Abismo (HERE), Infame, and the latest releases by Electrozombies, A Sad Bada succeed very well in conjugating the slow paced rhythms of doom and funeral doom with the dilated, ethereal and eerie atmospheres of post-metal with a smart touch of progressive metal technique.

A Sad Bada band has been forging their style since 2008. After several changes, the present-day line-up of the band includes founders Gastón Cariola on guitars and Fernando Figueroa (from Ocultum) on guitars/vocals plus Roberto Toledo on bass and Alejandro Ossandon (previously in Abismo) very recently involved for the drums for replacing Raul Valenzuela. The present and past musicians are all experienced in consequence of their long militancy in various doom, black and avantgarde/post-black metal bands in the Chile underground scene. Experience in crafting heavy downtuned music and some fine taste may well explain the majesty and the elegance of the tracks making up the debut full-length album by A Sad Bada. The album and was released as cool digipack version during early 2014 via the Chilean label Australis Records and carries the pictorial title of White Rivers and Coldest Chains.

But instead of showing pictures of imposing landscapes (like those gracing that amazing part of the southern hemisphere), the front cover of the album consists of a crude image of a (young) person on the verge of injecting a dose of heroine in his/her arm wrapped in chains. The tragic message of the photocopes well with the intensity and the despair seeping through the music contained in this powerful, beautiful album: five mournful heavy ballads (Rocio de Mayo, Hide and Grieve, The March of the Saddest Martyr, Quiet Rain and Silence Segregation, and Frustration in the Grey Streets of Resentment) which will make your mind plunge into a suffering darkness for over 48 minutes.

In general A Sad Bada shape their dark ballads over a backbone made of solid, raw, slow and sludgy funeral doom riffage where Fernando’s harsh, hissing growls act either as scary death rattles or else as the sick whispers of a drug-addict lost into his poisonous chemical vortex. Fernando’s singing style may sometimes remind of bands like Weedeater, but the music behind has no trace of swampy groove. Yet A Sad Bada’s music is intensely melodic especially thanks to the highly atmospheric insertions alternating with the slow, painful funeral doomy base and imparting an overall doleful, desperate aura as well as a touch of epic feeling to the whole album. This is ideal for narrating something like a grievous story of struggle against depression, dependence and various sorrows of life, like those suggested by cover art and track titles.
In spite of the rather consistent style characterizing the album, the ballads are not redundantly repetitive and exhibit a variable dynamics. These tracks are long, always exceeding 8 minutes and even over 10 minutes, but the leading melodies are smartly constructed by mixing styles and calibrating tempo changes, and never diluted into excessive drony feedback.

Tracks may sometimes briefly start with the intense swish of falling rain (e.g. Quiet Rain and Silence Segregation) or the noises of a busy city (e.g. in the closing suite Frustration in the Grey Streets of Resentment) but soon guitars, bass, harsh vocals (sometimes doubled) and booming drums will take over for flooring the listener with loads of crushing, strongly downtuned doom tempered by the lamented chant of the lead guitar. The atmospheric, melodic addition in A Sad Bada’s style is sometimes typical post-metal, especially when the band adopts dissonance. However often the combination of styles and the technical ability of the musicians create a charming sound entering proggy territories. Slow, and occasionally ultra-slow, pace dominates but the band knows how to calibrate moderate accelerations thereby adding further hammering power to their sound. The third, central suite, The March of the Saddest Martyr, is slightly different from the rest. It is lead by a dynamic melody developing in a spiraled progression like an ouroboros and turning into a surge of slow, obsessive heaviness.



The band’s sources of inspiration are clearly declared: Neurosis, Agalloch, Anathema, Mar de Grises and Dan Swäno. In general the rumbling sounds, the atmospheres and the solemnity of the composition often make A Sad Bada’s  music sound “oceanic”. So, beside the undoubtful funeral doom-death imprint reminding me of bands like Esoteric, Evoken or Mournful Congregation, I also hear some “echoes” of Ahab HERE.)........Well, you may try the experience A Sad Bada and make your own comparisons!

Album White Rivers and Coldest Chains is available by the label Australis Records or else by contacting the friendly guys of the band directly via Facebook or the official webpage. There (as well as on youtube) you can also find links for listening to some of the tracks of the album in both studio and live versions. For the moment there is no Bandcamp page available. Keep the band’s FB page checked out for updates.
Hopefully the band will also find soon a hook for further distributing the album more easily across Europe, North America and elsewhere. The band is currently doing much live activity in Chile as well as quite busy working on new music for upcoming releases, including a split. To be out soon for prolonging your pain ...

Words: Marilena Moroni

Video: A Sad Bada – Rocío de Mayo



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Official Website
Australis Records

White Rivers and Coldest Chains - Track list:

1. Rocio de Mayo (8:56)       
2. Hide and Grieve  (11:13)       
3. The March of the Saddest Martyr  (9:40)       
4. Quiet Rain and Silence Segregation     (10:05)   
5.  Frustration in the Grey Streets of Resentment (8:52)