A Metal cornucopia
Review of the festival: BOGOTÁ SUBTERRÁNEA FEST
Special for La Caja de Pandora Underground Metal Radio Show.
Words: Juan Sabbath (www.bsabbath.com).
Images: Julián Pinzón / courtesy of Colonia Records
Concert hall: Ace of Spades (Bogotá)
Date: August 29 and 30, 2025
Festival organizers: Sismika Producciones, In Fastu Negas & Bestial Rites Productions
Inversion of the Voice of God (drums) and Nocturnal Damnation (vocals) in Abysmal Lord.
August closed with an event that will—finally!—be expressed here in all its true dimensions: one of the four primordial entities that gave rise to extreme metal set foot on Colombian soil. Unfortunately, it seems this wasn't firmly understood by most of those who call themselves metalheads. Black Sabbath is, to metal in general, what SARCÓFAGO represents to extreme metal. That's beyond dispute. Neither Venom, nor Hellhammer, nor Bathory managed to transmute so much violence and blasphemy from the very beginning. SARCÓFAGO did it with a single, supreme work: I.N.R.I. (1987), and at the Bogotá Subterránea Fest, the curses of Satanas, Satanic Lust, INRI, Deathrash, and perhaps the greatest composition in the history of extreme metal: Nightmare, were unleashed (in that order).
These hyperboles, meant to quantify what happened, are not artificial. There's History, and it's written in stone! You can review what have been written, felt, and thought about extreme metal, and the conclusion will be that my hyperbole falls short. Why wasn't the attendance as massive as it should have been in a scene that is said to be one of the most extreme? The answers are found in my book Bienvenidos al Sabbath: Underground Metal is more vital than ever! What happened at BSF confirms my hypothesis: the more commercial artifices contaminate metal, the deeper the underground sinks, becoming more elitist and more conservative. There's no room for excuses here: "Too many events, no money," but it's Incubus from the classic SARCÓFAGO lineup; you couldn't miss the opportunity to thank and enjoy live his contribution to the genre if you love metal. "But it's a tribute band," a highly questionable excuse when there are original members and when SARCÓFAGO's songs are performed as if they were classical music, with the same rigor, without losing their power, violence, Satanism, attitude, and with complete fidelity to what was recorded on the vinyl. The Laws did their entire performance with a backdrop of documentary footage of SARCÓFAGO in its early days. Beyond that, the presence of Incubus (Gerald Minelli) is a categorical reason for the Bogotá Subterránea Fest to go down in history. But I repeat, this was not realized by the local scene. Such a disappointment.
Fortunately, those who did understand what this means were the organizers of the Bogotá Subterránea Fest, and those of us who pay tribute to our roots, those of us who are truly radical (not the misunderstood radicalism I denounced in the first pages of my book). The lineup that accompanied Incubus' visit is evidence that the organizers were very clear about the historic milestone they were building. The excellent band The Laws—even without Antichrist, Butcher, or D.D. Crazy—deserved bands of equal standing, and that's what MORBID MACABRE means: What an impressive force! They are the manifest legacy of what SARCÓFAGO sowed, and as it should be: the apprentice surpassing the master. MORBID MACABRE is Alex Oquendo's tribute to two legendary bands—SARCÓFAGO and MORBID ANGEL—and with that reference, there's no need to go into detail about their performance: In my view, they were the second most important band on the bill and had the best staging of the entire festival. DEMONCY, which closed the festival, represents the most satanic and hypnotic side of the legend, reinterpreted by the Atlanta band. Because here we can't talk about originality; extreme metal was created by SARCÓFAGO, and from then on, everything else is a reinterpretation. But how good!, as in the case of DEMONCY, although of course with its touches of originality and distinction thanks to the character that VJS (guitarist) adds to any of the bands he plays in, and the sound that Ixithra (Robert Crusen) has refined over the years. Black Metal ambrosia.
Vestal (vocals) in Merrimack.
SORGUINAZIA performed traditional black metal, equally satisfying for fans of the genre, under the command of the beautiful witch Xolaryxis (Catherine Diebel), who looked very pleased with the bacchanalian atmosphere created at the Bogotá Subterránea Fest. MORBOSATAN maintained the legacy of raw and direct South American metal, the art of controlled noise, the mastery of knowing how to stand on the threshold of sonic chaos and artistic creation, which seems to have been the selection criterion for the festival. And that is the great difficulty of the subgenres cataloged as war black metal, raw black metal, ultra metal, death/black metal, and the like. Achieving complex musical structures by mastering the art of noise and taking advantage of distortion and its magical effect. Interweaving diabolical harmonics and pentatonics that underlie the fascination of this musical art, an art that, if not properly mastered, the result is pure and authentic noise. The profile of the bands performing at the Bogotá Subterránea Fest remained the same, with the exception of IMPERIAL DOOM, which leveraged its many years of experience in the art of controlled noise to take it to another level, one that combines technique and harmony to the point where it can be perceived as progressive, a subtle combination of the best of extreme genres.
On Friday, MERRIMACK closed the day, following the aforementioned profile, highlighting the French band's complexity and instrumental virtuosity. But before that, there was the empire of aggressive and lustful noise from WEREGOAT, also following the SARCÓFAGO legacy. The accelerated rhythm of WEREGOAT was preceded by the more lugubrious dimensions of VOLAHN in slow passages that lead to the pre-Hispanic era and introduce a fast and aggressive black metal. Authentic paganism of these lands, also represented by the other Latin bands on the lineup, such as Kvlt of Eblis, Torva, Destroyer Attack, Cadaveric Messiah, Mortado, Black Hate, and Sepulkhral Baptism.
Bogotá Subterránea Fest was a cornucopia of extreme and, above all, underground metal, for the few. A festival that, unfortunately, will not be repeated. Impeccable organization that transcends and distances itself from the mud of opportunistic hucksters. Musicians who mingled with and enjoyed the audience. Legends like Incubus and Alex Oquendo, artists whose secret lies in remaining human and unassuming, fully connected to other metalheads and with a deep respect for metal. Amidst event pollution, audience development and media work become even more essential, or people will continue to make the wrong decisions, and truly underground festivals will become increasingly rare. The underground, as I said in the book "Bienvenidos al Sabbath," is not an ideal condition; it is one imposed by external factors such as mass manipulation and control of distribution channels:
«Underground music is not a fake stance that seeks to limit distribution in order to avoid reaching the masses, which would be absurd. The "underground" condition is given by the combination of talent and quality in the work with the absence of a budget for its adequate distribution (...) The tricks of marketing have taken over metal to achieve massive sales through crude plagiarism (...) large audiences have been conditioned to consume a commercial artifice (...) With its financial leverage, the hucksters take greater advantage of consumerist gregariousness while the underground continues to reach a very limited audience.»
Bienvenidos al Sabbath, p. 91 (p. 93 in the second press).
Unrepeatable mystique, beyond commercial opportunism, is the legacy that Bogotá Subterránea Fest leaves behind for the history of metal. Thanks to its organizers.
Juan Sabbath. Bogotá, September 3, 2025
Blastum (drums) in Merrimack.