A few days ago, it was announced the release of exciting new material for doom metal fans. I am talking about the split album by the Germans Mirror of Deception and the Chileans Mortajas, two bands that have both set foot on Viennese soil: Mortajas played at Doom Over Vienna in 2023 and are returning this year, while Mirror of Deception participated in the same festival in 2011, 2018, and 2024. With the title “Vientos lentos / El sueño del cóndor” (Slow Winds / The Condor’s Dream), the idea for this joint EP had been slowly simmering since January 2026.
In both cases, we are presented with a release of new material based on pre-existing compositions. Considering that the international doom scene sings almost exclusively in English, it is quite interesting that the 7″ vinyl is sung entirely in Spanish. Mortajas brings us, on the one hand, a cover of “El sueño del cóndor”, a track by the Peruvian band Reino Ermitaño (who also performed in Vienna in 2014). Mirror of Deception, on the other hand, offers us a Spanish-language version of their own track “Slow Winds”, which they had previously released as a single in 2024 and as the centrepiece of their latest album, Transience, in 2026.
“El sueño del cóndor”
Originally released in 2012 in the album Veneración del fuego, “El sueño del cóndor” takes a critical look at the invasion and subsequent military domination of the Americas by the Catholic European imperial powers. To do so, the song draws on Andean religious elements and the image of the condor, an animal of exceptional symbolic significance in the Andes, which dreams of restoring the world to the way it was before the occupation. Although this kind of themes is not unfamiliar to Mortajas, their original compositions generally treat them in a rather implicit manner, leaving the meaning somewhat open to the listener’s interpretation. But that does not imply that these social issues are ignored by the band. Two examples: In “Bajo un nuevo sol” (2023), Mortajas mourns the genocides against indigenous peoples (particularly the Selk’nam) together with cosmological thoughts, while in “Perdido en un mar” (also 2023) the lyrics become particularly meaningful when we are informed about Chilean contemporary history and about those people who were thrown (alive or dead) into the Pacific Ocean by state agents.
Mortajas’ cover respects both the original tone of the song (based in G minor with the harmonic inflections) and the tempo (78–80 bpm). However, several variations in this version are worth noting. Structurally, the first three minutes of the track remain more or less the same. But instead of ending with the same riff repeated ad infinitum while slowing down (rallentando) for nearly a minute, as in Reino Ermitaño’s recording, Mortajas chooses to repeat the entire last sung section (En cuanto caiga quien profanó su dolor…) before concluding the song with a brief guitar solo at the original tempo. The introduction also changes a bit: Mortajas replaces here the virtuoso solo with a guitar-harmonised melodic line, closer to Mortajas’s sober style.
Actually, this very point (the sobriety) is perhaps the most noticeable difference between the vocals on the two versions. Even though the lyrics and riffs are the same in both recordings, Marcos’s (Mortajas) clean voice fully immerse the listener in a melancholic and solemn atmosphere, in contrast to Tania’s (Reino Ermitaño) powerful vocal performance which, although solemn, also evokes the theatrical, the mystical, the occult, and the magical. Arguably Mortajas’s reduced use of reverb on the vocals and the presence of vocal harmonies (absent in the original) also point in this direction. Finally, Rodrigo’s (Mortajas) work on the drums is outstanding. Through subtle changes in his playing, particularly in the use of double-bass, in the phrase endings, and in the bridges, he reinterprets the excellent work done by Julio (Reino Ermitaño).
“Vientos lentos”
The other side of the split features “Vientos lentos” which, as I anticipated, is a Spanish-language version of a now classic anthem by Mirror of Deception. The story goes like this: exactly a year ago, while I was attending the prelude to the Divide and Dissolve show, I received an email from Jochen, the band’s guitarist and founder, whom I met a few years ago when the band last came to Vienna. The email was titled “A Doom Proposal”, and in it he asked me if I would be interested in helping him with a crazy idea: translating the lyrics of “Slow Winds” from English into Spanish. Of course, I immediately accepted. The plan was to adapt the text into Spanish with a certain degree of sensitivity and understanding, at least offering a bit more than an online translator could provide. And so we embarked on this little project that now finally comes to life.
As I mentioned in my review of the album Transience, the song was inspired by the story of Ötzi, a natural mummy from the Copper Age found in South Tyrol, who was murdered and suffered a slow and agonising death. The song is also inspired by solitary hikes and views of the Andes and the Alps, evoking an atmosphere of introspection and resigned melancholy that pairs perfectly with the slow and heavy sound of the Mirror of Deception and, especially here, with the clean and straightforward vocals of the band. This new version, sung by Michael alongside Pascal on backing vocals just as in the original, now offers us new nuances of interpretation and a special flavour provided by the Spanish language.
Coda
This interband and intercontinental collaboration has also extended to the artwork. The cover image for the Mirror of Deception side was created by the Chilean artist Andrea Pizarro, who had previously worked on both of Mortajas’s previously released albums. The cover for the Mortajas side of the split, on the other hand, was designed by Marcos Coifman, a former member of Reino Ermitaño.
Mortajas is about to release their third LP, from which I have already heard two wonderful songs at the concert they recently gave alongside Mar de Grises, Poema Arcanus, and IIII last Friday in Santiago, Chile. The album is going to crush it. The band is currently on the way to the start of their 2026 European tour “Doom in All its Beauty” with Officium Triste and The Answer Lies in the Black Void. They will be performing in Rotterdam (8 November), Erfurt (10 November), Zagreb (12 November), Bratislava (14 November), Budapest (15 November) and, naturally, at Doom Over Vienna (13 November).
Mirror of Deception, meanwhile, has just released their sixth full-length album in March this year (you can find the review here) and has recently played at Bunker of Doom (Stuttgart) and Styigian Pilgrims (Braunschweig). On 21 November, they will be playing at Doom Over Luch in Lugau.