Albuquerque five-piece death metal “militia” Unseen Espiritu had their first show in November, but they’re not exactly a new band. Singer Jeff Gallegos has been in the local scene for decades, as have most of his bandmates, and many of them have been playing and performing together in popular local projects since the early 90s. The experience definitely shows. If you’re lucky enough to have seen Smashed Hands back in the day, imagine that monster absorbing years of power and ambushing Albuquerque as Unseen Espiritu. Guitarists Chris Scales and Jason Lopez both do “double-duty,” switching seamlessly between rhythm and lead guitar duties while drummer Gabe Godinez assaults audiences with relentless beats and fills. And bassist Leon Gallegos (who is Jeff’s brother) might just be the unbreakable rhythmic force that keeps all that metal from exploding and showering the venue with shrapnel. Even though the music is brutal, and the subject matter is as violent as a gory slasher film, Jeff is a fun-loving dude at heart whose main goal is to build up the local metal community while his band destroys the stage. As owner of the legendary – and unfortunately long-gone – death metal haunt The Armory and president of the New Mexico Death Militia music club, he’s got a lot of stories to tell. And he’s been kind enough to give us a little history lesson and a crash-course in local death metal debauchery.
Do you want to tell us about your previous projects?
I went to Technical College in 1987 after I graduated high school and my brother Leon already had a band going called Militia. When I’d come back to town – they had a vocalist already – I’d sit in on a couple Metallica or Black Sabbath songs. We did Militia until the early 90s. Then we became a Sublegion and we did that till like 96’ when we joined with Damien and (Unseen Espiritu drummer) Gabe Godinez for Smashed Hands. We did Smashed Hands until, I wanna say 2000-ish. In the early 2000s we formed End to End which featured Chris Scales who plays guitar in Unseen Espiritu. In 2002 or 2003 End to End released a CD called Anonymity. I did a couple of EP projects that we never released and after all the years went by, things kind of fell apart. I was running The Armory [music venue] from like the early 2000s up until 2017 when it got vandalized beyond repair.
What is the New Mexico Death Militia?
New Mexico Death Militia (NMDM) has been around for 17 years, going on 18. At the end of June will be our 18th year celebration. Basically what we do is just support shows. There are quite a few of us that are musicians, and everybody that’s still with us today has been in the club for over 10 years. This year was our 11th Annual Brutal Christmas Drive. I don’t know if you notice, but we don’t all hang out in the corner like we’re a gang or whatever, you know? It’s not like that at all. Everybody kind of mingles and hangs out with everybody, because everybody’s friends with everybody in the metal scene.
When I had The Armory going, that was the most active we ever were. And we’re still trying to find a venue or a clubhouse to call our own – that’s not ridiculously overpriced – so we can get back to doing that. I mean, shit, we had Viscera Trails from Israel, In Death from Australia, Evangelic from Spain, you know? We had bands from all over the world going to play at The Armory. Channing (Concho) and Suspended are really active in the Native American communities and events, so we support all that. We sponsored a big ol’ metal fest down in Las Cruces this past summer called Southwest Metal Fest. So wherever we can get involved, we will.
Will you describe your sound for us?
We’ve got some doom elements, death metal, black metal and a little bit of hardcore [punk]. I think those are the cores that we pull from for our overall sound. But I think we lean more towards the death metal and black metal style.
Death metal, to me, is violence and gore, a little dark religion and hate for politics – although I’m a pretty hardcore conspiracy guy. I love the shredding guitar – the more technical, the better. And the drums: I love them grindy and fast.
What are your favorite venues to play and why?
My favorite metal venue is definitely the Launchpad. Launchpad is the metal house. I mean, the staff? Come on. We’ve known everybody that’s worked there for years and years, everybody’s cool and they treat all the patrons tremendously. There’s never any BS at the metal show, there are hardly ever any fights. Everybody’s cool with each other, you know?
We’ve been fortunate enough to open up for some big bands like Cannibal Corpse and Kreator at Sunshine and The El Rey Theater. And, of course, those are historical theaters right there. It don’t get better than that.
I’m looking forward to hopefully doing something at Revel one day because I love their concept. For some of the shows I’ve been to with my youngest daughter – she’s barely 20 – you’re in the “adult cage” if you’re 21 or older. And at Revel, my kids could be standing there next to me and we could hang out together for the show.
What are your lyrics about?
Killing people [laughs]. I’m a hardcore gore fan, my favorite movies are stuff like Rob Zombie. I’m not looking to go out and do anything stupid or hurt anyone, and I definitely don’t like to see people getting hurt, but I like to write some hard lyrics like that. I dabble a little bit into conspiracy theories and the corruption of politics, but the gory stuff is just fantasy. It’s just like a horror movie. I’m not gonna take it into religion or anything like that. It keeps a little bit less of the fucking bad taste in everyone’s mouth.
What bands or genres inspire your music?
I’d say my favorite metal band is a Necrophagist – still to this day – and Cryptopsy. When [Cryptopsy’s] “None so Vile” came out, it stayed in my CD player for like two years. It would come out so I could jam like one CD of whoever, and then that one would go right back in.
I’m a little bit older so I grew up listening to The Doobie Brothers and The Who and Pink Floyd growing up. And then came bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Celtic Frost and King Diamond/Merciful Fate. Then came Deicide, Malevolent Creation and Cannibal Corpse. For me, it kept progressing as far as the music I wanted to hear. I always thought Hendrix would probably love some of the musicians nowadays. I’m pretty stoked about some of the newer bands. Angelmaker is pretty sick, there’s a wave of female-fronted bands that are brutal as fuck like Stabbing from Texas. My CD player hasn’t worked in a while, so I’m just on iHeart’s “Necrophagist Radio” station.
What is the best show you have ever played and why?
We’ve opened up for Billy Milano (of S.O.D.), Suffocation and Cannibal Corpse, but I think our last End to End show was the coolest. It was at the El Rey and we opened for Kreator – it can’t get any cooler than that. They had a giant digital background and the promoter’s like, “Send me some images I can use for your background while you play.” I sent him what was going to be the next End to End album cover which was the reaper on top of the world with crows flying by and all this blood and stuff. And it was just huge, you know? That was really mind-blowing.
Listen Up:
Unseen Espiritu’s next show is Jan. 24 at Launchpad with Sorry Guerro, Thrall and Desmadre (NM).
These dudes are old-school, so they released most of their music on physical media, but YouTube’s got everything these days. Visit the End to End channel for some blast beats from the past including live performance videos, old demo tracks and more.
You can listen to the infamous Smashed Hands 1997 self-titled demo tape here.
Bernadette Espinoza captured the spirit of this year’s 11th Annual NMDM Brutal Christmas Drive with some killer footage of Unseen Espiritu live at the Moonlight Lounge here.
Check out Jeff Gallegos doing his best Baphomet impression during the End to End song “Skeletal Frames” live at Launchpad in 2013 here.
For more old-school death metal nostalgia, watch End to End doing “Diminished” live at The Compound around 2007 here.
Leon Gallegos also has some awesome photos of the Brutal Christmas Drive (including shots of some local ghouls who have been in the scene since death metal was a new thing) here.