Although I have always preferred Malón to Hermética – the wildly popular Argentine metal band it spun off from – due to their lack of upbeat, punky tracks and overly long ballads, it has been a while since they actually released an album I enjoyed. That sounds worse than it is, as Malón was inactive for about a decade after releasing ‘Justicia o Resistencia’ in the mid-nineties, leaving 2015’s ‘Nuevo Orden Mundial’ as the only decent, but underwhelming album in the meantime. With that in mind, however, I was pleasantly surprised about how lively this year’s ‘Oscuro Plan del Poder’ ended up sounding.

While ‘Oscuro Plan del Poder’ largely sounds like one would expect Malón to sound, that being a blend of traditional heavy metal and post-thrash groove metal, Tano Romano’s riff work here feels notably closer to old school heavy metal than the borderline thrash metal of their first two albums. The result is reminiscent of a Latin American take on what Accept has been doing on their post-reunion albums, though admittedly, Claudio O’Connor’s rough-edged, high-pitched vocals play a significant role in that comparison. Malón isn’t quite as neoclasically oriented, however, focusing instead on meat-and-potatoes riffs that sound surprisingly timeless.

Speaking of O’Connor, his vocals have aged surprisingly well. His vocal cords sound a bit more worn and scratchy than they used to, but that in itself gives some of the more melodic passages on the album a bit more character. ‘Paraíso de Cristal’, for instance, could easily have turned into an inconspicious power ballad with a cleaner singer, but it doesn’t. Or when the darker ‘La Soledad del Miedo’ opens up for its surprisingly melodic chorus; O’Connor keeps it from sounding too similar to European bands. Relatively new drummer Javier Rubio also helps with his tight playing and thunderous sound.

But it’s not just the softer tracks that sound convincing. In fact, the combination of strong riffs, characteristic vocals and powerful rhythms works wonders on tracks like the simple, but brutally effective ‘El Gran Reinicio’, the midtempo stomper ‘Un Cielo Rojo’ and the propulsive ‘Impulsando el Encuentro’. ‘Pacto Pesado’ is probably my favorite track on the album due to its triplet rhythm working so well, though closing track ‘Ancho Falso’ comes close with a couple of nifty riffs courtesy of Romano. The preceding ‘Antorcha’ has a slightly punky bite to the riff work, making it a welcome twist on the formula of the album.

‘Oscuro Plan del Poder’ is a surprisingly entertaining listen. Malón clearly knows what they want to sound like here and they managed to capture that in a sonically pleasing mix, in which even Karlos Cuadrado’s bass can be heard – not always a given for heavy metal albums. The album combines elements of traditional heavy metal and somewhat more modern metal in a remarkably effective way. One could argue that many of these songs could have been on any album by Romano’s solo project, but I would say that the Malón members have a collective spark that gives ‘Oscuro Plan del Poder’ the edge.

Recommended tracks: ‘Pacto Pesado’, ‘Ancho Falso’, ‘La Soledad del Miedo’