Dezorah - Tierra Eterna (Five Year Anniversary Review)
A much-deserved revisit of the darkly scenic and hard-hitting progressive rock debut by Dezorah.
Score: 10/10
Even though three members of Dezorah are not from the RGV, the mutual love between the band and the scene, their hypnotic stage presence, and their vaguely self-described “post-progressive” rock sound was fostered down here. The story behind the band’s formation shows a trajectory of how an unforgettable debut album forms when the right pieces come together.
In 2013, singer Danica Salazar and guitarist Eric Martinez began as a boyfriend-girlfriend duo playing a more pop sound with programmed drums. They were called “Zorah” at the time, due to their fandom of the Zelda video games.
Being from Dallas, they didn’t start with any local connections in the RGV. One night, they watched Harlingen’s Angel Corsi perform, who was also a promoter and had a large role as a mentor for a lot of local talent. They approached Corsi to compliment his performance, and shared their project with him. When Corsi invited them, and their guitar, to his next gig, they followed up on his offer. When Corsi got off the stage at his next performance, he put them “on the spot in the nicest way” and asked if Salazar and Martinez brought their guitar after all. They went outside to the trunk of their car, pulled out their instrument, and played their music right there in the parking lot. They continued to impress ever since.
Eric Martinez found work at McAllen’s Guitar Center, where naturally, musicians form bands with coworkers. He met bassist Daven Martinez who had experience playing in cover bands and private events, and guitarist Johnny Garza (who was born and raised in Austin) who was a member of Sick/Sea at the time. They met their eventual drummer Trey Puga at a show when he was playing with Yours Truly, Gloria. In about a year since Zorah began, Salazar and Martinez recruited a supergroup of experienced musicians who were well-plugged into the scene, with every member adding to the trailblazing sound we have come to know and love. The switch from programmed drums to a live kit made the band heavier, while adding bass gave them a darker feel.
Two years of mounting buzz by playing countless shows at virtually every venue in the RGV culminated into a memorable album release performance at Yerberia Cultura in September 2016. Since then, Dezorah has been one of the most prevalent names in the alternative local scene.
For being a progressive rock album, the music is impressively easy on the ears. It’s teeming with technical skill and esotericism that Tool fans could appreciate, but with sharp grooves and riffs that are immediately captivating and as agile as they are poised. Some of the album’s topics deal with impermanence (death, time, memory), with trance-inducing moments throughout — extended sections of flourishing effects and sporadic strums and drums — that can evoke transitions from life to death, present to past, wakefulness to sleep.
Another factor that adds to the album’s darkness and beauty is Salazar’s voice. It’s intense, rich, and ghostly, bringing to mind traits from a wide spectrum of performers: the dramatics of Björk, the allure of Selena, a bit of operatic warmth from Natalia Lafourcade, and the high-pitched mystique of Anthony Green.
The lush Latin-rock psychedelia and syncopation of “The Moon and I” build into cascading waves of swarming guitars, percussive polyrhythms, and thick slabs of Salazar’s wailing. It’s one of the most gripping moments of the album, and it’s just getting started. They take a deep dive into Circa Survive territory with the dark bass lead and ambient guitars of “Vicio.” Salazar’s voice is spacey and otherworldly, as she sings the most arcane lyrics on the album, with lines like “You came from a mouth of blood, that rained of salt.”
The title track kicks off the action immediately with its anxious speed and call-and-response riff, before a beautifully slowed and dragged-out section acts as a breather until the music revs up again. The lyrics further the album’s earthly theme with the fear of being buried alive with existential dread.
The three-movement highlight “Las Flores” opens with an echoey desolate vignette, then a middle section of rumbling instrumental interplay takes over. The final section solidifies into a more standard rock song structure, but no less intense than before, as the music forms a fitting backdrop for reflections of mortality. “For all the flowers that circle your grave, remind me of where I’ll end up one day.”
The concluding “Dead Cells” features jerky and angular riffs that eventually give way to a serene finale. After a whole EP of dark meditations, a heartwarming thought on eternalness makes for great closure. “When the planets collide, we’ll build a home inside their stars.”
It all adds up to half an hour of hard-hitting and darkly scenic rock where every note strikes with soul and purpose. Its cohesive songwriting, technical prowess, and thematic execution hold its spell after five years, but the memories are still as fresh as they are for Dezorah’s more recent works.
In 2018, they released their softer and scaled-back followup “Creando Azul,” to even more success. After moving the band to Dallas later that year, Salazar and Garza made a side project called CANA! in 2020. It’s their take on the latin freestyle sound of the 80’s and 90’s, making a version more suitable for home listening during the Covid lockdowns. Dezorah’s live shows took a break due to the pandemic, but is gracing the stage once again, returning from a Texas mini-tour earlier this week. After 7 years of maintaining a strong output and presence, their place in the collective memory of RGV fans and beyond truly feels eternal.
Score: 10/10
