Hocico’s ‘Odio Bajo El Alma’ turns 29 on 14 August
Hocico’s debut album ‘Odio Bajo El Alma’ turns 29 on 14 August. The 1997 Opción Sónica release features 11 tracks, including ‘Hell on Earth.’
Hocico‘s debut full-length album, “Odio Bajo El Alma,” turns 29 on 14 August. The Mexican electro-industrial duo released the record on 14 August 1997 through the Mexican label Opción Sónica, with European distribution handled by Out Of Line.
‘Odio Bajo El Alma’ tracklist and credits
“Odio Bajo El Alma” was Hocico’s first official release after three self-produced cassette demos – “Misuse, Abuse and Accident” (1993), “Autoagresión Persistente” (1994) and “Triste Desprecio” (1996). The album was produced by Edmundo Navas, with engineering handled by the band alongside Rogelio Gómez. It was issued on CD and cassette in Mexico, later reissued in Germany through Out Of Line and Sub/Mission Records, and reissued again on vinyl by Out Of Line in 2019.
The album runs 11 tracks:
- “Cuando la Maldad Despierta”
- “Odio en el Alma”
- “Beings of Relief”
- “Final Resource”
- “Hell on Earth”
- “Gota de Sangre”
- “Temple of Lies”
- “Sexo Bajo Testosterona (Frenetik Mix ’96)”
- “Sad Scorn”
- “Slow Death”
- “Face to Face”
The record is available to stream via Spotify.
According to Wikipedia, “Odio Bajo El Alma” was well received across Europe and the Americas and introduced audiences outside Mexico to a style of electronic music few realized was being made there. Before the album’s release, Hocico had been part of a Mexico City collective called La Corporación, alongside acts such as Cenobita, Ogo, Encefálisis and Deus Ex Machina, that supported and promoted the country’s electronic underground.
About Hocico
Hocico is a Mexican electro-industrial duo formed in 1993 in Mexico City by cousins Eric García, performing as Erk Aicrag, and Óscar Mayorga, performing as Racso Agroyam. García writes the lyrics and performs vocals, while Mayorga handles programming. Both had experimented with electronic music since their teens, drawing on industrial acts such as Skinny Puppy. Their musical partnership began in 1989 in a group called Niñera Degenerada, and in 1992 the two left that project to form Hocico de Perro, later shortened simply to Hocico.
Between 1993 and 1996 the duo self-released three cassette demos before issuing “Odio Bajo El Alma” in 1997 on Opción Sónica with Out Of Line handling European distribution. The end of the decade brought the live album “Los Hijos Del Infierno,” recorded during Hocico’s 1998 European tour, and the studio follow-up “Sangre Hirviente” (1999), which reached number 19 on the CMJ RPM chart in the United States. Hocico played the Zillo festival in Germany and the Euro Rock festival in Belgium in 1999, returned to Germany’s Woodstage festival in 2000 in front of more than 20,000 people, and opened for Rammstein during that band’s 2001 Mexican tour.
“Signos De Aberración” followed in 2002, then “Wrack And Ruin” in 2004, after which the band paused new studio material. During the break, García launched his solo project Rabia Sorda and relocated to Leipzig, Germany, while Mayorga remained based in Mexico City. Hocico resumed with “Memorias Atrás” in 2008 and has released an album roughly every two years since: “Tiempos de Furia” (2010), “El Ultimo Minuto” (2012), “Los días caminando en el fuego” (2013), “Ofensor” (2015), “The Spell of the Spider” (2017, which reached number 42 on the German national charts) and “Artificial Extinction” (2019, an album centered on artificial intelligence as a threat to humanity, which peaked at number 30 in Germany). “Hyperviolent” followed in 2022.
Side-Line has continued to track the band’s output, including the Hey Tú EP expansion with Prayers and, most recently, the ‘Unseen Horror Scenes’ album, released in May 2026. Twenty-nine years after “Odio Bajo El Alma” introduced the duo to audiences outside Mexico, the album remains the starting point of that catalog.
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