Lament: Tears Of A Leper (1997) | From Mexico To The World
Latin America is generally a place that doesn’t get much attention when it comes to Metal. With the time it became inevitable for countless tours of thousands of bands, from the most important to the ones still in the underground, but forgetting, and not paying attention to the Latin bands, that from the deepest of the underground and with much less resources than musicians from other latitudes have been able to create works to remember. That is the case of “Tears Of A Leper” by the Mexican band Lament, a cult album within the White Metal scene that even today, more than 25 years after its release, continues to cause astonishment for its complex and intricate compositions, its brutal sound and an originality rarely seen.
Let’s make a little history. Originally, Lament was called “Beheaded” and was formed in 1993, proposing a mixture between Grindcore and Brutal Death Metal. In its beginnings, the band recorded some demos, and Abel Gomez, Lament’s drummer and current vocalist, the only original member of the band tells us about it “The first demo we recorded, had no title. Now it was re-edited and I titled it “El Lamento De Satán”, it was 7 songs where the first vocalist, Julio, sang, and those were our first recordings. We recorded it with a tape recorder, those old ones, but you can understand it, you can hear what we were doing. Later we recorded a demo in which there were going to be 7 other songs, but they were not edited because, what do you think! By mistake, I deleted 4 songs, imagine that. Only 3 songs were included and it was taken out. Then we wanted to re-record those same 3 songs with an additional track which is “El Valle De La Decisión”, and now we did it in a 4-song demo that was much better recorded. There were three demos in total.“
So in 1996, and after the death of their original drummer (Arturo Guzmán q.e.p.d), the band changed its name to Lament, and as a result of their participation in a band festival in the U.S.A., the band got closer to Steve Rowe, bassist, vocalist, leader of Mortification and also owner of the Rowe Productions label, who proposed them to record an album. Thus, “Tears Of A Leper” was born.
In this respect, Abel Gomez, Lament’s drummer and current vocalist, the only original member of the band, tells us that “We were invited for the second time to the Texas Rock Fest festival. The first time was in 1995 and we did very well, so much so that we played twice, when our participation was only once. The promoter liked our participation so much that he asked us to play again. The next year he invited us to play again. It was 1996 and Steve Rowe was touring with Mortification with the album Envision Evangelene. He listened to us, liked our work, and offered us a contract through which we recorded the album “Tears Of A Leper”, which came out on his label, and thank God, was the biggest seller. Of all the albums that Rowe Productions released, “Tears Of A Leper” was the one that sold the most. And that’s how we went into recording it, and Steve Rowe produced the whole record. He paid for the whole thing, it’s practically his production. He released it on Rowe Productions with distribution from Diamante Music Group, who at that time had distribution in the USA and Canada.”
The album contains 10 songs that are torn between a primordial and melodic Death Metal, showing an evolution between the previous and this album, with bases focused on Classic Metal, interesting riffs and guitar arrangements, all in an atmosphere and a melancholic concept that is transmitted from the cover itself and the lyrics. To this we must add the decisive combination of guttural and clean vocals, with lyrics in both English and Spanish. The result is one of the most interesting that could be heard in those years, and to this day, it continues to surprise.
Regarding the recording, Abel Gomez recalls that “It was recorded in the state of Kansas City, USA, under the production of Jeff Scheetz, a professional guitarist who at that time was dedicated to music, or at that time was dedicated to music, now I don’t know. He has, or had his studio in his house. He produced the whole album, did all the production and participated in the recording. We recorded everything with him, he was in charge of everything, the recording and the mixing. I don’t remember if he also did the mastering because that was in 1996.”
Jeff Scheetz’s contribution was fundamental for the gestation of the album, according to Abel “Imagine recording with a musician of that stature, of that level, at that time, it was the maximum. Of course he contributed to the sound and added very interesting things. It was an experience where we learned a lot, where he made our music much more powerful and that’s what all bands should do.”
“Sacrifice Of Righteousness” is the beginning of this dark adventure. Its beginning with a story in Spanish with the musical background of introduction is really creepy. Its weary and steady pace becomes frenetic at times. With “From Pain To Hope” (dedicated to the natives of Mexico who have suffered a life of extreme poverty), we have another of Lament’s complex compositions that together with “The Mystery Of Iniquity”, show the most experimental side of Lament.
Undoubtedly, “Rivers Of Loneliness” must be one of the best songs on the album, not only for its plucking and riffs, but also for its lyrics (all based on the biblical book of Job), which give a tremendous air to the story of the famous biblical figure.
“Legal” must be the most Classic Metal influenced track of the whole album, and also one of the best guitar solos, although ‘A Cry Of Anguish’ with its galloping rhythm is not far behind.
The most Death Metal we find in this album is “Terminating Existence” (a declaration of principles against suicide) and “Absolute Predominance”, but we could also add “Chains Of Darkness” and “Tears Of A Leper” to the list, with the detail of the impressive guitar plucking and change of base and climate that Lament proposes in the same song. One of the characteristics of the band, and especially of this album. Undoubtedly one of the high points of this album.
The ten songs that make up “Tears Of A Leper”, not only have a unity and coherence that make this album, something unique but also does not suffer from ups and downs.
This despite the fact that not all of the album was pre-conceived, “Four additional tracks were written during our stay in the United States, before arriving at the studio, to complete an album of 10 tracks, which was what the label asked us to do”, according to Lament’s leader. Regarding the language, he adds that “Well, we sang in English because it is the universal language, because many people listen to or like rock in English, but nowadays we sing in Spanish.At that time the company demanded that it be in English”; in spite of this, Lament managed to get some songs to be entirely in Spanish, such as ‘Rivers Of Loneliness’ and ‘Terminating Existence’.
The cover is really creepy, whichever way you look at it. A work of art.The internal design also has its own thing, with a booklet perhaps different since it doesn’t have a book format but it is displayed as a poster.It includes photographs of the band, the lyrics of the songs and an explanation of the band’s message, and especially of the album cover, which was not without controversy in the Christian music market. “The only problem we had with the cover was that it was very aggressive.The first cover is the one that Metanoia (Australian Death Metal band) released with their album “Time To Die”. That cover was for us, but Diamante Music Group found it too aggressive and banned it.Another one was made but they still banned it again because the album was sold with the cover upside down, imagine that. There has always been opposition from the evil brother, although it sounds strange but that’s how it is. There has always been opposition to what I do.I say “what I do” because I am the only original member of the band”, recalls Abel Gomez, to which he adds that ”All the lyrics talk about our faith, experiences, and the concept of the album, the leper, exemplifies the human being without Christ.The human being who does not have Christ is like a leper, a person who does not have God, has spiritual leprosy.Jayson Sherlock contributed the band’s logo, which is his own design.In fact he came back to redesign the logo that we are now using on the new album “Demolished But Not Destroyed”.Keith Bannister was involved in the album design.”
“Tears Of A Leper” is a classic within extreme music with a Christian message. For us at least, it is one of the best albums of the style and the passage of time has not dented its sound, dry, cutting but at the same time full of small details that make each of the songs that make it up special.Underneath the simple appearance of just another Death Metal album, there are layers, chords and notes that give another color to the band’s sound.
The album had its repercussion at the time, and beyond being considered a classic, for Abel Gomez “The only repercussion was that it had distribution in Canada and the USA, which was the most important market at the time.Many people say it’s our best album but that’s because it’s the most known, because it had a distribution like a professional band like Cannibal Corpse and we were rookies at that time.That was the transcendent thing because all the albums I’ve done are like my children, so I can’t say which one is the best, but I think they all have something very nice.”
After “Tears Of A Leper”, Lament continued on its way, even with the release of many more albums and a last album not long ago. The band currently only features Abel Gomez, who besides being the only member of the band, is also in charge of the vocals. The passage of time, perhaps, made the album difficult to obtain, at least in its physical edition, that is why it has been re-released by “Lament Records”, the independent label that Abel Gomez formed. Therefore, he himself told us that regarding the release of this re-release that “I did the re-release, remastered under my own label, Lament Records. It was done because I wanted to have it to sell it again, for all those people who are still asking for it and want to buy it. I wanted to have it in my possession because I was asking “hey send me records” and then they didn’t send them to you, but when the music is in your possession, you can make as many copies as you want, sell it to whoever you want. It was something I decided to do and thank God, I did it”; the curious thing is that this re-edition does not include any bonus track or special addition as it usually happens in these cases. They are the same 10 tracks that the first edition already contained.
One of the things that Abel Gomez remembers the most, regarding the recording of “Tears Of A Leper”, happened in the middle of the recording, and this is what he himself says, “Well I think this is one of the anecdotes that should be told the most. I remember that I asked one of the people who took us to Jeff Scheetz’s studio, a gringo, if he believed that what we were doing would please Steve Rowe, and he told me “what matters if he likes it or not, what matters is that it pleases God”, and that was something transcendental for me because it has marked my life in the sense that in the end the only one we should give glory, praise, and please is God. It doesn’t matter what man says, as long as we are doing God’s will, everything is going to be okay.”
No doubt that “Tears Of A Leper” is not only a collector’s item, but it is inescapable material for the history of Metal with a Christian message. Highlighting it is also a way to highlight that here, in Latin America, there may be a lack of resources, means to publish, etc., but what is not lacking is ability. Lament, with “Tears Of A Leper”, demonstrated that talent is what they have in abundance.
