‘Vivir es resistir, pero vivir conscientemente, No creo en el castigo pero sí en las consecuencías’ (Un Suspiro De Silencio) / ‘To live is to resist, but to live consciously. I do not believe in punishment, but I do believe in consequences’ (A Sigh Of Silence)

Lo Que Extrañas Ya No Existe (What You Miss No Longer Exists), is a notion that you face almost perpetually as you move through life.  The places that you felt at home, the communities that inspired you, the ideas that excited you, morph, dilute, distort.  The apparent replacements that emerge too often feel like pale imitations – shallow, less real, impure.

This is the second full-length from Lame – who feature members of Barcelona, Morreadoras, and Orden Mundial – and the follow up to 2023’s Dejad Que Vengan (Let Them Come).  Fuzzed guitars and a propulsively supple rhythm section provide the perfect partners to an utterly rampant vocal performance.  Vocalist Sally unleashes a rhythmically snarled tirade that bristles and spits with fury, that demands clear-eyed confrontation.

In intriguing contrast to this utterly venomous delivery, the lyrics much more closely reflect the introspection of the title.  They draw on the work of poets Alejandra Pizarnik and Cristobal Ortiz to conjure contemplations on the true meaning of justice and the importance of action in a world that is immersed in violence both against humanity and the planet itself.

As the album breathlessly sweeps from the seething opener Te Traigo Una Bomba Mi Amor (I Bring You A Bomb My Love), by way of the pneumatic velocity of Las Palabras, La Sangre, La Memoria (The Words, The Blood, The Memory), to the savagely escalating finale to Hasta Mañana Vida Mía (See You Tomorrow, My Life), the intensity is as embracing as it is unforgiving.  What we miss may no longer exist, but Lame forcefully remind us that it is only by pushing ourselves to adapt and change that we can realise those same values in new forms.  That is our resistance.