Brujeria

On one level, Brujeria are a brutally powerful rock band whose music walks along the border of grindcore and death metal. On another, Brujeria are a street-level exercise in performance art. To take them at their word, the members of Brujeria are leaders of a Mexican cartel of drug smugglers who use mutilation and murder to protect their interests and perform in disguise. However, it's an open secret that Brujeria aren't really members of a drug cartel; the band formed as the side project of several noted metal and punk musicians using their collective persona for dramatic effect as well as dark satire, introducing their alter egos on 1993's Matando Güeros. The busy schedule of the musicians and periodic turnover in the lineup often resulted in long gaps between albums, but 2016's brutal Pocho Aztlan was followed in relatively prompt fashion by 2023's furious and doomstruck Esto Es Brujeria.