Ava Mendoza - Mama Killa (2025)

The debut album of the New York-based trio of guitarist-vocalist Ava Mendoza (co-leader of Unnatural Ways and a member of Bill Orcutt’s Guitar Quartet), violinist gabby fluke-mogul (who has performed before with Mendoza as the AM/FM duo), and drummer Carolina Pérez (of the death metal bands Hypoxia and Castrator), sounds like the American answer to the Norwegian, high-volume and killer riffs Hedvig Mollestad Trio.

Mama Killa is named for the Inca goddess of the moon (and a few of the pieces are titled after mysterious archaeological sites related to ancient Andean and Inca myths about the sun). It offers a heavy, a very heavy blend of black, death, and doom metal, wrapped with psychedelic rock and some country and blues, and spiced with generous doses of feedback, distortion, and noise. The album was recorded at BC Studio in Brooklyn between November 2024 and February 2025.

This trio features fearless improvisers who like their music thunderous, raw, and brutal, as a late feminine equivalent to the seminal sonic assaults of John Zorn’s PainKiller, Massacre (with Fred Frith, with whom fluke-mogul plays), or Keiji Haino’s Fushitsush. Pérez, with her massive, high-intensity drumming, is the secret weapon of this trio and keeps pushing Mendoza and fluke-mogul to experiment in the uncompromising universes of black and death metal.

The second part of Mama Killa stresses the trio’s resourcefulness, imagination, and power, beyond the extreme metal territories. The cover of the gospel «American Grace» extends the sonic palette of the AM/FM duo with backbeat drums. Mendoza’s injects dirty and heavy blues-rock riffs while fluke-mogul flies with her solo, before both gravitate into a hillbilly version of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music. fluke-mogul deepens this kind of twisted country-blues vibe on the following «Partera Party» with Pérez’ heavy, funky drumming. The last piece, «Mama Coca», with its noisy guitar soundscapes, flirts with Fushitsusha’s legacy.

This is a trio that should be experienced live, and from a close distance to fully grasp its uplifting energy. ---Eyal Hareuveni

Ava Mendoza (guitar, vocals), gabby fluke-mogul (violin), Carolina Pérez (drums)