‘Hoy vivo reprimido confinado al olvido, Condicionado para vivir enjaulado, El pasado me asecha producto de falsos pasos, no soy dueños de mi destino’ (Enjaulados – Rostros Borrossos) ‘Today I live repressed, Confined to oblivion, Conditioned to live in a cage, The past haunts me as a result of false steps, I am not the master of my destiny’ (Caged – Blurred Faces)

I first encountered Tijuana’s Habak in 2020 through their excellent second album, Ningún Muro Consiguió Jamás Contener La Primavera (No Wall Has Ever Gotten To Contain The Spring), which is soon to be repressed by Alerta Antifascista, Persistent Vision, and Exabrupto Records.  Subsequent split releases, including last year’s blistering partnership with Lágrimas, have seen the band continue to relentlessly hone their melodic crust fuelled hardcore.  So, I was rather excited to see that Persistent Vision were reissuing the band’s remastered 2015 debut full-length, which had eluded me to this point, on vinyl for the first time.

And Insania does not disappoint, hitting home with a stark, fierce clarity in its own right, while also intimating the direction of the band’s later evolution.  All the hallmarks of Habak’s trademark sound are in place.  Impassioned, roared Spanish vocals, sometimes layered, occasionally call-and-response, intertwine with soaring, darkly melodic riffage and a powerfully limber rhythm section.  Shimmering passages of clean guitar and flourishes of melancholic strings are deployed to powerful effect and clearly hint towards the hauntingly evocative post-metal influences that the band have subsequently embraced.

Crushing opener Immune Al Dolor (Immune To Pain) sets the tone perfectly and highlights follow thick and fast – from the spectral spoken word climax of Orbe De Almas (Orb Of Souls), to the raucous fury of Enjaulados – Rostros Borrossos, from the soaring yet sombre beauty of Condenado Al Olvido (Condemned To Oblivion) to the bleakly euphoric title track.  Lyrical themes are, perhaps, more directly personal exploring as they do a sense of time passing and the vagaries of memory, feelings of loneliness and alienation.  This reissue includes a previously unreleased live studio version of Orbe De Almas.