A good listener, few words are enough. Eric Sueiro, Marc López, Joan Morera and Josep Peris have only required one of five letters to reduce in expression and context the fate of what they claim to be their first conceptual album, inspired by loss and the different tropes that sadness and the uprooting they bring with them. After three albums marked by a certain formative instability and an ambitious formula that is difficult to label, the Barcelonans Medal They now throw at us a forceful and angry kick titled “DUEL” with which they not only make up their best proposal to date but also frame, from the universality of their message, all those common challenges that life puts before us, as if it were a macabre and merciless gymkhana.
The glue and link that unites the thirteen daggers of honesty and fury that the quartet throws at us is none other than the mutual sincerity between its members, willing to embrace their most fragile side without hesitation or imposed integrity, exploring the limits of emotion and brotherhood. under the same discourse to as many as want to beat to the rhythm of the frequencies and impulses that they dictate. In back of “DUEL” There is a work of self-discovery and intimate analysis that tests the clichés of a generation allergic to weakness and poisoned by the culture of effort, demonstrating among its slogans (“I am a disaster, I am miserable / A feeling that devours me, the triumph of defeat”, they sing in “HYMN FOR DEFEAT”) that true healing begins the moment we recognize ourselves at our lowest stage and look squarely at what stalks us (“Wherever I go I am accompanied / I have a shadow, they are my demons,” we hear in “FLAGS AT HALF-MAST”).
Despite how cryptic its lyrics may sometimes seem to us, the ultimate goal of the album ends up penetrating us thanks, precisely, to a flexible narrative with which anyone can feel identified (“Escaping from a shell, shedding the skin, feeling that one cannot you move forward”, verses the outstanding “ABANDON YOURSELF TO SADNESS” between synth lines). This accessibility is also reflected in both tuning and tone, since the boys of Medal They have managed to come up with a much more solid and coherent offer in instrumental terms than what we witnessed in their other works, discarding experiments and opting for a more homogeneous path (supported, once again, by the already regular production of Sergio Pérez García). . Even so, the touch of the house (surprise with conformity and convention) continues to be implicit in this new release, its particular sound being the letter of introduction of a band that does not want to set limits, knowing that it is aware of the risk that sometimes entails. sounding too fierce for indie rock and too soft for the heavier scene. Oblivious to this, Medalla go about their business and unload on us a downpour of visceral melancholy and critical solemnity with pure riffs, shaking us from the very beginning and finding melody within the noise and solace within the disaster (“EVERYTHING IS SICK”). Immersed in its most philosophical and lapidary mechanics, it seems appropriate to give way to the epic; one in which victory takes a back seat and focuses on reminding us of the value of dignified emotional management, sharpening the most psychedelic metrics (“GARDEN OF DAGGERS”) and the most medievalist harmony (“SOLEDAD”).
The one in charge of lowering the curtain is an intense and emotional track of the same name as a duet (quite a rarity in the Catalans’ discography) co-starring with the Madrid artist Valdivia, who wants to provide the ideal corollary to an album with soul. and skin, willing to speak clearly and comfort those who need it. They already had bronze and silver; Their bravery, courage and authenticity now earn them gold.