Spooky season is finally upon us, and with it, a tidal wave of seasonal releases to get the creepy vibes going. But despite the seasonal festivities, for some, darks is a 24/7 state of mind. Here at Remezcla, we’ve spotlighted cholo goths, tropigoths, and even enigmatic Internet legends, but it’s about time we sink our teeth into the vampiros crafting eerie bangers all year long.
No shade; many of these one-off releases are hella fun as they push some of our favorite artists outside their usual comfort zones and into different dimensions of their creativity. In recent years, we’ve gotten Elis Paprika’s pagan punk rager “Dance with the Devil,” Charly Gynn‘s ectoplasmic perreo “Flow Paranormal,” and a blood-sucking rave crossover from Papá Topo and María Daniela y Su Sonido Lasser on their reimagining of “La Chica Vampira.”
Punk, post-punk, industrial, goth, and more sounds conjured from the shadows are nothing new to the Latin American underground — just consider how even Caifanes appeared with pancaked Robert Smith-esque faces in the video for “La Negra Tomasa” back in 1988. In recent years, we’ve seen these motifs evolve. From the Russian post-punk memes that made Belarusian trio Molchat Doma unlikely Latin American favorites to wild darkwave covers of Valentin Elizalde and Karol G by Paket Sobak and FrioLento, respectively.
In fact, these twilight tunes are enjoying a major resurgence across the region, where a new generation of vampiros is thriving at clubs like El Real Under and El Centro de Salud in Mexico City or Bogotá’s nostalgia-driven all-nighters at Asilo. A legion of new bands has taken up the dark mantle of gothic trailblazers, such as RRRRRR and Santa Sabina. Here’s a look at some of our favorite young ghouls haunting the Latin American underground right now — just in time for Halloween time.
Buenos Vampiros
Maybe the most appropriate band to kick off this list is Buenos Vampiros, the post-punk quartet making waves in the coastal city of Mar del Plata at the southern tip of Buenos Aires province. Not quite beach goths, the more classically darks sound of their 2019 debut Paranormal received a delightful injection of surfy garage on their 2022 follow-up DESTRUYA! The band has quickly risen through the ranks of Argentina’s post-punk and darkwave revival, packing clubs and mosh pits alongside bands such as Dum Chica and Sakatumba.
Climas Interiores
Bogotá singer and producer Inti Alonso is a self-professed hardware fiend, amassing a vast collection of synthesizers and drum machines that have propelled his thumping darkwave productions into true Nosferatu bops. Alonso kickstarted the project in 2018, quickly gaining buzz with performances at legendary alternative clubs like Bogotá’s Asilo and Medellín’s Líbido. Climas Interiores is part of a fascinating goth and punk scene currently flourishing across Colombia, which also includes Bruma in Manizales and Píldora Letal in Cartagena.
Sexores
No list on Latin American post-punk and darkwave today is complete without Ecuadorian brooders, Sexores. Formed in Quito in 2010 by Emilia Bahamonde and David Yépez, the band’s propulsive songs inject gauzy shoegaze and dreampop vocals that feel like a hopeful candle burning in the deep of night. Their two most recent albums, East / West (2018) and Salamanca (2020), solidified their sulking authority, which they’ve taken around the globe with shows in Mexico, Bolivia, and Russia.
Varsovia
When Peruvian coldwave trio Varsovia released “Ellos Quieren Sangre” as part of their 2014 debut LP Recursos Inhumanos, they couldn’t have known the song’s searing political indictments would be just as relevant today. Blipping synths, crashing drum machines, and the despondent vocals of Sheri Corleone cemented their underground cult status, even releasing their industrial-tinged 2022 follow-up Diseñar y Destruir via revered experimental label Buh Records.
Espazmos
Espazmos are proof positive that most bands in the Boricua underground are cousins. Founded by Jota Vigilante of Los Vigilantes and Carlos Santiago, aka Pepper Kilo of Dávila 666, and Füete Billete, the band’s roster has also included members of Las Abejas and Desahuciados. While all these bands trade in jagged sounds ranging from punk to psych, Espazmos is the most decidedly goth of the bunch, delving into minimal noise on cuts like “Traje Blanco,” and going into a berserker post-punk rage on “Por Qué Pago Yo?”
Asimov
More ghostly than vampiric, Guatemalan shoegaze outfit Asimov honed an eerie signature sound across textured, phantasmagoric records such as 2019’s Todo Lo Que Buscamos Es Desaparecer and 2022’s Epicentro. The moody chapines oscillate between nostalgic dream pop riffs and bummer-pop vocals, with blurry, unsettling imagery of porcelain angels and dimly lit back rooms to match the mind-mending stories of their sci-fi namesake.
Ángel De La Guarda
In 2022, Chilean duo Ángel De La Guarda seemed to come out of nowhere with a simple but extremely potent EP titled Sentencia that channeled rage, sadness, and throbbing bass lines that amounted to a tremendous debut. The band is composed of electronic music producer Santiago González and filmmaker Pedro Roca, who together create immersive aural worlds with thundering choruses. Defiant of mass consumption trends, their follow-up, Alfanumérico, was released this summer with a sound that pivoted towards minimal techno and IDM, though still raging.
Mirror Revelations
From the noise atmospheres of Sunset Images to the experimental post-punk of unperro andaluz, Mexico is rife with new pitch-black sounds. But Mirror Revelations erupted in 2021 with their own spectral blend of shoegaze, krautrock, and buttloads of reverb that echoed like cries from beyond. The duo of Gabriela Alcalá and Alam Castillo released their debut album Aura back in May, unleashing a string of thumping, amorphous singles and even opening a massive sold-out show for English experimentalists Beak>.
M.W.E.I.M.
Punishing, sludgy industrial tunes from El Salvador, M.W.E.I.M. (or My Worst Enemy Is Myself) has been terrorizing its listeners since 2017’s metal-inflected At the Gates of Oblivion EP. But there’s more to this bizarre, conceptual project than meets the eye, as evidenced by the evocative chiptune and delicate ambient atmospheres of 2020’s original soundtrack for the video game, Machine Madness. This summer, M.W.E.I.M. released a new EP titled Episodio 2: Penumbra, supercharged with spoken word dirges and cyberpunk beats that expand this already rich and confounding sonic universe.
Depresión Sonora
Spain has been foundational for goth en español, with influential acts dating back to campy disco creeps Alaska y Los Pegamoides and the shrieking punk of Parálisis Permanente and Eskorbuto. Young madrileño Marcos Crespo debuted as Depresión Sonora early in the pandemic, dropping a self-titled EP stacked with lo-fi, lightning-fast confessionals. Viral success and multiple sold-out tours later, Depresión Sonora has grown into a cornerstone of the new Spanish experimental underground alongside wildlings such as Rojuu and Ghouljaboy.