ESKORBUTO revived. “Demasiados Enemigos” (Too Many Enemies) is not just the title of another disc by the blazing band from Santurce but the album with the difficult duty of putting an end to a legendary combo as we knew it.
ESKORBUTO was a band of its time and that is shown in every chord every chorus branded in fire through the years by those who danced and vibrated around the flames of this cursed band.
At the dawn of a new decade (1990) nobody gave a cent for them. Eleven years had passed by since the naughty boys of rock’n’roll embarked themselves in a personal crusade that would carry them to glory but also to death. An inseparable duality throughout all of their career. After euphoric, fun and prolific times came nightmare, sweat, blood, dust. Degeneration itself presided over the musical and personal scepticism of this unique band. The thorny path looked opaque. The only solution was to use the machete to tore up the undergrowth by the roots. Not looking back. They owed nothing to anybody and the list of enemies was long. Reality surpassed fiction. And that fiction was created with the ambitions of swanky bands hoping to be the bad guys of rock’n’roll.
ESKORBUTO is at this time a much more experienced band. Although they always knew where they wanted to go they had not other choice than to fight for a living. They well knew that. The symptoms of that situation are evident in this album.
Over three years had passed since the obscure “Las Más Macabras de las Vidas” (The Most Macabre of Lives) that harvested very few concerts and a lot of detractors that did not wait to label the band as almost done due to the health conditions of its members. Rumours that they did not even own instruments were spread. It is precisely in that moment when “Demasiados Enemigos” (Too Many Enemies) forces all them to shut the fuck up. As if Attila and his Huns making their way through ESKORBUTO delivers one of the best produced works of the trio and again done in a record time. Only them were capable of falling into lethargy for so long and suddenly at dawn knock at the door with this album in their hands. Again attacking, pulling out the guns, aiming without hesitation, straight to the head and pulling the trigger without mercy. “We do music because stores do not sell machine guns” they stated. This belief is found in the track “La Mejor Banda” (The Best Band) de last slice of this coup de grace.
The disc shows the same frame of mind than its processors, a pessimistic profile as in “Nueva esperanza” (New Hope). The moving “Adios Reina Mia” (Good Bye My Queen) sounds like a farewell but also provides dynamism to the whole set. We find oddities like “Presagio” (Premonition) a track in which we can locate influences of a song Iosu (guitar, vocals) had in mind for the record “Dena Ongi Dabil” of contemporary band ZARAMA. Also lively carefree tracks like “Eskorbutin” (Little Eskorbuto), “Emborrachate” (Get Drunk) and “Cosas de la Vida (Things of Life) all closer to Jualma’s (bass, vocals) vibe. “Unete al Desorden” (Join the Disorder) shows certain will of action but not aggressive enough.
Side B opens with “Intolerable” in the defiant and infuriating style that Iosu always liked. Next comes “En la Luna” (In the Clouds) probably also a song by Jualma, easy and carefree. “No Quiero Cambiar” (I Don’t Wanna Change) a classic song originally from 1981 is rescued to consolidate their stance and provide higher worth to the moment and the collection. The album closes with “La Mejor Banda” (The Best Band), proud, magnificent, dreaming about being as big as the most important criminals of the 20th century. Always visceral. Always ESKORBUTO.
This is a unique album. Special due to its legacy and the circumstances under which it was recorded. Now it is reissued in vinyl. If you didn’t get it at the time or you were too young to know, now you have the chance to request the max from your turntable not giving a damn if volume affects the structure of the building.
