Rito Estacional

It’s not for us to say, but this album is destined to become a Spanish punk classic. Just wait and see. It’s clear form the start, bells warn us that RUNAs’ attack is imminent, they are coming with all they’ve got and are not keeping prisoners. But before we focus on the album. Who are RUNA? Where are they from? RUNA is a power trio from Barcelona formed by Llobet, Carlo and Kike. The last two are ex-members of the pop- ular surf-rock band Los Tiki Phantoms. Carlo Pavía (also known as “El Carlo” in the tat- too world) left the band in 2011, but it wasn’t until Kike did the same in 2014 that they decided to start a new project together: That would be the beginning of RUNA. Kike was in charge of the guitar while Carlo took bass, lyrics and leading vocals. Shortly after, Llobet (ex Vórtice, Mono, Segunda Apnea…) became the band’s drummer. In the band’s own words “the idea was to get together and see what happened, to try and find something in-between with each of our different tastes. Carlo had never sung so we took a while before finding our own identity. During 2014 and until 2016 we developed that identity”. This process of trial and error is reflected in their 2016 self-published debut album, released in collaboration with Proyecto Eclipse (the creative platform formed by El Carlo and his fellow tattooists Rotor and David Tejero).

From then on the band submerged themselves in to the composition of this current album, the breathtaking Rito Estacional. The idea was to “create an album with a main theme, for the album to make sense as a whole, to revalue the idea of an LP instead of it just being a bunch of songs. It’s a conceptual album, as horrible as the word sounds”. And may they crucify us if they haven’t managed to do so. Rito Estacional is a very special album, where the composition, details and production has been very carefully pampered. The equilateral triangle formed by the guitar, bass and drums are dominant, but you’ll find a few moments where the album is bolstered with accurate and subtle arrangements (strings, cowbells, didgeridoos…) that give the album a very particular atmosphere. While creating the album the band listened to bands like Replacements, Hüsker Dü, The Damned, The Sound, Wire, Forgetters, The Estranged or Gabinete Caligari’s first albums, but they also listened to echoes of the first Killing Joke, peter and the Test Tubes Babies, Frogs and Soberphobia, Siouxsies’ Juju, the “New Age” Blitz or Second Empire Justice, all combined with a touch of melody and made with a USA bad attitude, like Agent Orange or Naked Raygun.

The twelve tracks on this Rito Estacional are hymns, made to sing with your fist raised and your other hand tightly holding your shirt chest level. The combination of unforget- table melodies and the exciting, epic and personal lyrics by Carlo, predict cosmic karaoke’s more than concerts, with people giving everything they have and singing as loud as they can. Rito Estacional is a dark but vital album that explores the true dimen- sion of human conflict.