One Knight Banneret and the Two Armour-Bearers
Compilations.
Do such releases of a metal band make any sense? By this title “1997-2007”,
Tierra Santa wants to sum their decennary scene activity and six full-lenghts.
Fortunately it is not a best-of album and the Spaniards serve three new
(previously unreleased) songs with additional DVD disc containing all the TS
videoclips, live performances and some extras. The band decided to create this
compilation by not re-recording of the old material, on one hand it’s a pity,
but on the other hand? Everyone can compare their first efforts and these later
killing heavy shots like “Indomable” or “Apocalipsis”. Also one thing has been
confirmed: the “Mejor morir en pie” album is the Tierra Santa’s weakest release.
Just let’s peer at the end of the first cd, where penultimate “Otelo” is
between two crushing road rollers “La armada invencible” and “Indomable”. Although
“Otelo” isn’t a crap, but meeting the killers from their previous albums,
simply it’s out of the running. The similar thing is with the rest tracks of
this wretched album.
Musically
“1997-2007” is a survey of all the albums that have been recorded since the
beginning of the band. Thus, “Medieval” has two songs, “Legendario” three,
“Tierras de leyenda” five, “Sangre de reyes” seven, “Indomable” six,
“Apocalipsis” five and mentioned just above “Mejor morir en pie” four
representatives. All the songs are totally mixed, I can’t see any logic here. It
looks like a decisive factor in track order choice was a ‘random’ button. Fortunately
the unreleased songs are put on the end of the second cd disc and this is a
good time to write something about it. It’s an obvious thing for the supporter
of the band like me, who knows the old stuff by heart, that the most important
is this final trinity: “Volver al edén”, “Que nunca acabe esta noche” and “Tú
vas al norte y yo al sur”. And to put it briefly, the first of them is the
essence of Tierra Santa style, as it is maintained in the “Indomable” style and
without any hesitation I could put it into the track list of this masterpiece. The
Spaniards deliver really good riffs and this unique chorus form. For sure the
song isn’t a refuse from “Mejor morir en pie” session or something like that.
In turn, the rest of tracks is a bit weaker, but still I cannot throw them away
before the face of the sixth album. Both given in a calmer way, like
quasi-ballads, conquer my mind with simple melody lines, but I cannot forget
about this killing “Volver al edén”… Anyway
I treat it as a really good thing, and the reason I still keep it in my
collection.
Taking an
account on all pro et contra, I can state that releasing just an Ep instead of
compilation only with these three mentioned songs would be definitely a better
idea. For me as a long-time fan of the band, the rest is simply needless. And
my final mark refers only to it. The most important is that the added new songs
are really worth the trouble. Especially “Volver al edén”… And probably it was a good material for a
greenhorn entering the world of Tierra Santa, but now? It has no sense.
65/100
-Tlacaxipehualiztli
(written on March, 2014)
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