Fausto Taranto - La Reina de las Fatigas

Title: La Reina de las Fatigas ["The Queen of Fatigue"].
Artist: Fausto Taranto.
Year: 2020.
Place: Granada (Andalusia, Spain).
Genre(s): Flamenco/Andalusian Metal.
Label: Rock Estatal Records.

Today, I bring another project that changed my life and views.

Fausto Taranto are a band from the region of Andalusia (Spain). It is a band of experienced artists making the ultimate mix: Flamenco and Metal.

Fausto Taranto. A name that joins two unrelated terms together: Fausto, the Spanish form for "Faust", and "Taranto", a palo flamenco (Flamenco is usually divided into styles that have their own roots, influences, ways and rules, known as palos or cantes), that was born in the Andalusian province of Almería.

So, just in case you don't know, Flamenco is a kind of "modern genre" (although it is some centuries old, or even more, some experts say) that collects many music traditions from Andalusia, being Andalusia a cultural and historical region in Southern Spain, taking its name from the Muslim denomination of the Iberian Peninsula, "Al-Andalus". This genre collects influences from native Andalusians, the Romani community, the Moors, Sephardic Jews and Black Africans, as well as other later influences.

Fausto Taranto isn't the first band to blend Metal and Flamenco. Not at all. But in my opinion, they have got the most balanced blend: Alternative Metal, sung with quejíos flamencos ("Flamenco moans"), exploring the rhythms, tempos and metrics of palos flamencos and, of course, with lyrics that are just pure modern Andalusian poetry sung in Andalusian dialectal voice. It's just amazing how unique, and yet how Andalusian (or Flamenco) they can get to sound within Metal. Using as logo a traditional Andalusian peineta (an ornamental comb) turned into a skull, they bring us the best Flamenco Metal ever.

And in this year, they bring us this "La Reina de las Fatigas", their third album. An album where they explore even more the different branches of Flamenco, without compromising their Metal soul. An album to make you feel emotional ups and downs, while savouring that Southern flavour of Flamenco. A masterpiece that shows their evolution as musicians and as a band, despite the changes in their line-up. A much more mature blend showing how much they've learned in their main two influences.

This album is kind of ecclectic, since it has songs with strong beats; ballad-like, slow songs and also interludes where Flamenco is the main protagonist. The fastest and hardest songs remind a bit of the formula they followed in their first album, "El Círculo Primitivo" ('The Primitive Circle'). As the other albums, it's entirely sung in Andalusian Spanish, using pronunciation, vocabulary and expressions unique to different areas of Andalusia, especially, their home city and province, Granada.

The album comes in a very well-designed digipack. With drawings unique to this album, by Javier Sutil, and a coolest imagery that breeds from Andalusian imagery and culture, they give us a booklet with all lyrics, while associating one drawing to each particular song and their meaning. The artwork in "La Reina de las Fatigas" is complex, meaningful and really cool to watch, and it's even more delightful than ever, with its own inner mythology.

In summary, this is an amazing album that deserves more than one listening, that old and new fans will enjoy and that will provide you with an unique listening experience because of its unique blending of a Metal base with strong Flamenco and Andalusian influences. If you were, like me, one of those who used to look for strange "Folk Metal" bands outside of the usual Northern European traditions (Celtic and Viking Metal), and enjoyed bands such as Melechesh, Nile, Orphaned Land, Magane, Rudra, Kawir, Ex Deo and others, you should check this record out. Maybe the lyrics aren't about epic historic battles and mythology, as those others, but the sound is definitely of an unique flavour and tradition.

And once said this, I would like to address the album song by song, since like Flamenco, each song has its own soul, and deserves some words.

1 - La Criba ["The Picking"]

This is the opening song. A song that is medium-paced, and has different passages. But none is especially fast or slow.

The verses are tranquil, with some atmospheric company. The vocal lines go in an Andalusian traditional rhythm of chanting and the Flamenco guitar sometimes is heard here and there. This is just the calm before the storm. When the chorus breaks in, all electric instruments come into play, with a main riff that sounds a bit Arabic, even. Ihmaele de la Torre's singing voice goes to a higher pitch during the chorus, adding up emotion.

The lyrics seem to be about not following the flock, not obeying, no matter how hard, lonely or hurtful it is sometimes. To be faithful to oneself.

- "I scratch myself and there are marks on my skin. They are memories of yesterday that won't stop bleeding, that won't stop hurting just by remembering, and forced to silence".

2- La Presa ["The Prey"]

The second song is faster, and straight to your throat with the instruments and the words. Alternative Metal, where only in the vocal lines you can taste some Andalusian leaning. The drums beat you with its beat repeatedly, marking the faster rhythm.

It has a simple structure (verse-chorus-verse-chorus-instrumental bridge-chorus). The entire song is intended to be aggressive, and intense.

Lyrically, it seems to be some kind of payback to adults (or maybe teachers) that were abusive when he was a child.

- "The things of old age: the hunter today, is the prey. Your head is on my wall like a trophy in the museum of bad losing, let's see when you confess, because I see too much stupidity in the roots and in the bark".
- "Another tale without an end, another joke behind my back: a rose in a rose bush, not on your hair nor on your skirt".

3 - Rumores y Juramentos ["Rumours and Oaths"]

This was the second single and music video for the album, and the last released so far. It's a song with a constant beat, and kind of catchy. The beat is inspired in some palo flamenco, although I don't know which, since I'm no musician (yet).

In the bridge before the end, there's even a classical Flamenco chanting (lelelele) with traditional Flamenco hand claps.

The lyrics, clearly against nosy people who spread false rumours.

- "Let the rumours be heard, the gossip around the corners, let the "sniffers" go out, let them out to seek my ruin".

4 - Alboroto ["Rampage"]

This song sounds mainly like an Alternative Metal song, save for Ihmaele's quejíos. It's Metal, the riffs are constant and strong, and the two main segments alternate until the end. It's a quite catchy, easy-to-follow type of song.

- "Our faces bother us already. Our bodies bother us already. And now our monsters do appear, the ones that come out from our insides".
- "Now that all friction is fire that doesn't warm you up, but it burns you".

5 - La Ratonera ["The Mousetrap"]

Another slow one, with a string leading and slow drums. The ambience is nostalgic and sad, accompanied by some keys. In the chorus, the electric instruments break into scene and make it a bit more aggressive and dramatic, but it's still slow in its beat, just more heartfelt.

The words, I would say is a complaint against today's music industry, which sells music that lacks soul just to have gains, but forget about true artists.

- "No matter how much they close their doors at our faces, and open our scars and add salt to them".

6 - Granaína ["Granadian"]

This one is an interlude. A granaína is a palo, and its name, expressed in Andalusian dialect (in regular Spanish it would go as Granadina), it means "from Granada", just the city and province Fausto Taranto are from. This song lacks vocals and it's played only with toque (guitar playing). The song is slow and sad, evoking some melancholy.

7 - Abanicos y Soplaores ["Fans and Blowers"]

I must say the translation to this title is tricky. When one says soplaor, it can mean a person who works in blowing glass, but also another type of fan, similar to the Japanese ones, that are also very typical in Andalusia, both of them.

This was the first single and music video. This song is also slow-paced, but it has so much drama and strength in it. The Flamenco guitar has a strong presence and Ihmaele's voice is the most broken here. The song is just delightful tragedy and heartbreak. And by the end, it takes some speed and even more strength to close the song at its peak.

Lyrically, not really sure, but seems a heartbreaking rant to a girl who hurt the character.

- "My own life I'd take, just to make you blush; the queen of fatigue, the princess of pains: let's see whom you beg for tissues when they all cry for you".
- "I can see in your empty soul less life than inside a coffin".
- "And so I saw myself like an animal that was tied as a puppy and now he breaks the muzzle, and now let's see what they say about you, about me, about our darkness".

8 - Bocabajo ["Upside Down"]

This song has two very approaches that are pretty different. The verse is medium-paced, atmospheric, building up dramatic ambience until the chorus starts. There is a surgically precise Flamenco guitar making its presence here and there, and a keyboard creating atmosphere, as always. On the other hand, the chorus is strong, straight to your face, aggressive, expressing rejection and desperation, with hard riffs. Also, some parts, especially the bridge, has a Flamenco feeling to it in the rhythm.

In the end, the electric guitar, bass and drums go crazy and burst in aggressive riffs and beats, although the vocals still follow an Andalusian-sounding pattern, but it precipitates the cascade of emotions just in time to close the song.

The poetry here is a strong rejection to a past lover and their memories, or so it seems (if you haven't noticed, flamenco poetry is tricky and not always what it seems).

- "May I don't wanna come closer to even smell you, and may I reject your bread croutons".
- "May I don't wannna find myself upside down, that my madness hung from a cord".
- "Your kisses, they brought me bad luck, they left us a sad ending. They took from us more than Death herself...".
- "The clock and silence got lost. It broke right in half. The fire faded away, and also our memory, and I wish it won't burn ever again".

9 - En las Esquelas ["In the Obituaries"]

Another song that starts slow, with the Flamenco guitar playing its painful strings. Although one can hear the Metal instruments here, all of them follow acoustically the Flamenco guitar playing a palo flamenco. And as I said, I can't recognize them by hearing alone, but it's one of the slow and sad ones.

When the chorus starts, the guitar riffs slash the atmosphere in the same tempo, and express profound grief. Ihmaele's voice in this song is key to express the emotion of the song, going up and down in its Flamenco singing to drive us through the song.

- "Let it appear in the obituaries, if I don't see you prettier than the Torre la Vela".

*1 Torre (de) la Vela refers to the Watch Tower in the Alhambra, Granada's most known monument.

10 - De la Nada ["Out of Nowhere"]

This song starts fast and straight to your face. The drums hits firmly and with the same beat until the first vocal line starts. The bass follows the drums and electric guitar as fast as them. When the chorus starts, the beat slows down, to show more darkness, but it goes back to hitting you hard soon after.

- "The cold arrives out of nowhere, even though Winter ended. And the seconds stop, and they seem eternal to you".

11 - Taranta

A Taranta is a palo flamenco in the same group as Taranto. This one, which is another interlude without vocals, is skillfully played by Lolo de la Encarna on his Flamenco guitar, and it's not only like sad. It has a dense darkness in its strings. It feels almost funereal from the start. I have no clue about Flamenco guitar or the complexity of the palos, but I've listened enough Flamenco to have the strong opinion that this is one of my favourite Tarantas from all the ones I've heard.

12 - Cantes Populares ["Popular Songs"]

In this outro, one can hear, first, one of the cymbals in the drums being hit in constant times, reminding of a church bell. A male cantaor (it doesn't sound like Ihmaele de la Torre, but I might well be wrong) with high pitch voice starts singing a song by Tomás Pavón (older brother to Pastora Pavón, known as La Niña de los Peines -"The Girl of the Combs"-, one of modern Flamenco's oldest and most important voices). The electric guitar and I think the bass, break in, just few seconds after the Flamenco guitar comes in, and they all follow the singing. One drum is hit repeatedly right after. The song express, vocally, raw sadness and desperation in strong, heartfelt moans.

The perfect closure for an album with so much Flamenco feeling. Using Metal instruments, yet traditional.

Conclusion:

This album is massive, and it requires skillful artists to compose something like this. "La Reina de las Fatigas" might be the most Metal, yet most Flamenco album that Fausto Taranto has created to this day. The musicianship, and the perfect blend of these two insane genres, one so recent and one so old, bring us an amazing listening experience, filled with originality and tradition, flavoured Andalusian and Southern Spanish and making us feel frenetically and deeply.

As somebody who grew up listening to Flamenco, this kind of tributes, that make me feel as much as the original, but entwined with one of my other favourite genres (Metal), they just make me happy. Fausto Taranto is an incredibly talented band, with huge knowledge about both, Metal and Flamenco, and they deserve so much more attention than they are receiving now, so I hope this article helps a little, especially for the international public, to bring attention around them, because honestly, this is one of the most original masterpieces you can find in 2020, and probably ever.

The best: The musicianship is insane. The blend of Flamenco and Metal is each album more perfect than it already was. The sound is pretty unique. It can make metalheads interested in the ancient art of Flamenco, and flamencos interested in the rawness and intensity of Metal. As Folk Metal did with other cultures, this particular genre may show other people the beauty of Andalusian traditional music, through Metal. The lyrics are amazingly good, and very inspired by Andalusian traditional poetry.

The worst: I can't find a serious complaint. The only thing I might miss in a band like this, is that they use more Andalusian imagery in their lyrics. More epica and less urban poetry. Ihmaele's poetry is still impressive, I'm just a sucker for ancient themes.

10/10