The latest release from Guadalajara, Mexico’s band Destruidö was released in the very beginning of 2023 and features a solid mix of dirge-filled punk, galloping d-beats, and unrelenting feminist & anti-authoritarian messages in Spanish. The album’s title and opening salvo “Inferno” are inspired by the influential Mexican poet Rosario Castellanos (1925-1974). Castellanos’ work dealt with issues of religion, culture and gender in her home country and went on to become a significant influence on contemporary Mexican feminist theory and cultural studies.
Infernö is Destruidö’s fourth release since 2015 but it’s their first record that was mixed and mastered in the proper way. The album features eight tracks, including some older songs like “Religión/Manipulación”, “This is Dis life”, and “Fosas Clandestinas” that appeared on their poor recording quality demos in the past. Though the production is much better than earlier recordings, the band still sounds raw, teeth-grinding and down-tuned as it gets. Vicious d-beat bands like Disclose, Anti-Cimex, or Besthöven influence Destruidö’s distorted mayhem, but beyond that, Destruidö have a lot of things to say and it’s always great to hear the style is still consistent throughout the world after so many years. The music stays strictly within the genre’s boundaries and doesn’t surprise with anything, yet it’s still not really common to hear d-beat raw punk bands with a solid female presence and even rarer to hear feminist messages rather than the usual Discharge-inspired anti-war haikus. My only complaint is I would like to hear Destruidö playing faster and nastier as they don’t really push the boundaries in terms of speed and aggression. Somehow it lacks this final knockout punch. It’s still a decent release anyway.
