Doombia, Vol. 2: El Diablo Que Conoces
I had never heard of Doombia before, but they emailed us asking us to listen to this album. Released today (November 6, 2026), so it's fresh off the press. Apparently, the recording was done with Justin Phelps, who was also involved with Mars Volta, among others. Now, Mars Volta isn't exactly mainstream pop, so that promises some fireworks. In any case, I'm not expecting Ed Sheeran.
The first track, Doombia Viene, starts in a peculiar way. It feels like a Mexican folk song crossed with some kind of post-rock grunge band. It has something heavy about it, but something light at the same time. But after three minutes, I still don't quite know what I'm listening to, but personally, I don't find that to be a bad experience.
Doombiando again has those catchy latin vibes under the heavy guitars that I noticed in the previous track. But in this song, things are 'let go' a bit more; the music opens up more. As for the vocals: in both this track and the previous one, that Deftones-style isn't quite my thing.
The next song, titled ¿Quién Soy Yo?, also has a nice latin beat in the background. But now the vocals are starting to bother me a little. That being said, this is a really great heavy track where two (three? four?) styles come together beautifully. The contrast between what I think of the vocals and what I think of the music has only grown further at this point.
Bosteza is a kind of intermezzo in the album. A different atmosphere, with about a minute of instrumental work, before crashing hard into Dejar de Tomar. Again, a very cool track, I can't say anything else. Man and His Castle feels a bit more average compared to the other tracks, but it features a hard-hitting double-time section.
El Diablo Adentro is another short instrumental piece of about a minute, but it definitely doesn't have the same chill vibe as Bosteza. It doesn't really function as an introduction to El Baile de las Fantasmas either, which sets a completely different mood. Suddenly we're back in the latin sphere. This track is also fully instrumental and is actually quite cool, but I feel like I'm searching for a common thread in this album. If I'm being taken on a journey, it's mostly a confusing one. La Costa Oregoniana is also a quiet acoustic track that again seems to have nothing to do with the rest.
From there, we move on to Searching. Perhaps the weakest track I've heard on this album so far; not bad on its own, mind you, just not very cool. I can imagine a live audience going wild for this song, so it undoubtedly has a purpose in the repertoire.
Machine in the Ghost is a longer track, nearly 7 minutes, and features a chill intro and a distinctive latin bassline. Yes, this is another cool song, with the right dynamics and interesting melodic lines. And by now, I think I've found the genre for this album: progressive latin rock. The bridge gives off a sort of Tool-like vibe. The music swings in all directions and is never boring, I'll give them that.
With Màs, the band shows another side of themselves. But this short intermezzo also seems to have little to do with the rest of the music, other than serving as an auditory reset to go fresh into Hardest Pill: a song that, funny enough, has something familiar about it. This is also secretly a really great track.
And after such a full song, we suddenly enter a beautiful acoustic guitar piece of just over a minute: El Vuelo. For a change, the contrast between the intermezzo and the final track of the album isn't that huge. Te Extraño starts quietly and clearly puts the latin influences more in the foreground here. As the song progresses, it gets a bit harder, but it never devolves into those heavy guitars we heard in the rest of the album.
So yeah: what do I think of this? On one hand, it is musically excellently executed, the balance between latin and rock/metal is spot on, and this album is simply a very cool jumble of all sorts of tracks, styles, influences, and random sounds. At the same time, I was bothered by the vocals here and there, and I'm convinced that an extra take to make them just a bit tighter would not have been a luxury. But in the end, after listening to the whole album, I do have the urge to put it on again, so they've done something right.
