Try this: death metal from Cuba, sung in Spanish, with added percussion. Does this sound familiar? It should. Of course, I mean Sepultura, and to be more precise, the later work of Sepultura when Max Cavalera was still part of the band. That is mainly what Tendencia sounds like. Is this a bad thing? Certainly not. Not only have both Sepultura and Max gone in different directions from that time (leaving an “opening” for others to fill), but Tendencia only sounds like them, they’re not copying. The CD sounds a bit flat (but hey, listen to Metallica’s “..and Justice for All”, and you’ll know flat), but once you get over that there is still enough variety. The Cuban guys sound a bit rougher somehow. Not as smoothly produced, and in this case that is helping them, to emphasize the difference between them and the Brazilian legend. The vocals are, well, different. Which is not that surprising, because believe it or not, Max has a very distinct voice. And maybe, probably, these guys have too, but then again you don’t know these voices so well yet.

Furthermore the songs have their own approach to the genre. Maybe it’s just a matter of a different distortion-setting, but I think it is a bit more than that. And of course the songs are definitely different because they have been written by different people. Go figure. The album as a whole is very, very good. There is enough variation in the songs, enough depth, mainly because of the use of keyboards and percussion in addition to the main instruments (however they can be used more subtly for perfection, but then again that will make the music sound more “American-smooth” and overproduced) and still remains a package. They even take sidesteps, like track 8, which sounds more classsic metal-like, or the instrumental last track, which is nothing but a percussion freak-out at its finest. You know what to expect from bands like these, but that does not always guarantee that it will be good, on the contrary. Tendencia however have got it spot on.