Before we get to this week's #ThemeSongTuesday feature, I apologize for not having put this article out last week. October's been quite the busy month for us here at the Smark Henry offices, and with the WWE 2K18 release, I had to prioritize the review in the interest of timeliness.
Now that that's out of the way, by this point, it's no longer a spoiler if I told you that we've got a new Lucha Underground Champion! Ultima Lucha Tres concluded with a couple more twists before sending us off into a world without it—one of them being Pentagon Dark cashing in his Gift of the Gods Championship to get a Lucha Underground title match against Prince Puma.
While it seemed like the events of Ultima Lucha Tres were a culmination of Puma's character arc, in many ways, it was also the same case for Pentagon Dark. Good ol' Cero Miedo had built up a lot of love from the Believers of the Temple that putting a championship on him seemed like a foregone conclusion—something that should have happened long ago, even.
Now that he is the show's top champion—and its last if the show never returns—we might as well pay tribute to him in this space by featuring the theme song he's used on Lucha Underground.
The theme was recorded by a band called Cut One; and there isn't a lot of information about them available online other than the fact that they're on iTunes and have been putting music out since 2012. As for the track itself, it's called "Thrill Switch" and can actually be found on Spotify as part of a compilation album called Electrorok.
From the moment the drums kick in, there isn't anything generic about this theme. The guitars give off this foreboding vibe, setting the mood for something dark and enigmatic. Once the hook starts, the keys come in and take you to a place that's between a boss battle and a haunted house—or maybe both.
Through Pentagon Dark's run on Lucha Underground, we only really get to hear up until the first chorus, which is enough time for the song to accentuate the character we've all come to love. This is a guy who knows zero fear and gives zero fucks about breaking bones. "Thrill Switch" gets that across through the grittiness of its guitars, the ominous feel of its keys, and the intensity of its drum patterns.
There's a new Champion in #LuchaUnderground and he has CERO MIEDO! #PentagonDark #CeroMiedo #Wrestling #LuchaLibre #UltimaLuchaTres pic.twitter.com/lXRNmYBGYW— Lucha Underground (@LuchaElRey) October 19, 2017
Speaking of the drums, they aren't really anything special. In fact, they sound like they could be taken from an album cut of Crazy Town. But what I enjoyed about the drums is how they set a decent cadence that Pentagon Dark could walk along to—especially in the cold, calculated manner that he does. Yes, Pentagon Dark is a luchador. But he isn't your typical flippy one. He's going to measure you from the moment he enters the temple and he will fuck you up.
As for its bridge, it's particularly interesting because there's a mix of guitars and scratching that adds to the edginess of the song without it sounding like it was made for an edgelord.
As a whole, even though the song doesn't have vocals, it's got enough character in it to make you want to use it as a walkout song or even as part of your workout playlist. Whether or not Lucha Underground comes back, I'll take "Thrill Switch" with me and include it into my playlists on Spotify to remind me of one of the more awesome characters we've seen on TV in the last half-decade.
Now, if only Lucha Underground can get renewed for another season so we can see the rest of his story as champion play out.
What do you think of Pentagon Dark's theme song? Is it something you'd listen to in the gym? Let us know in the comments section!
Header image taken as a screenshot from Ultima Lucha Tres
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Stan Sy (@_StanSy) is the Editor at Large of Smark Henry, and is also a radio DJ on Wave 89.1, an events host, a freelance writer, and one of the hosts of the Smark Gilas-Pilipinas Podcast. He also used to be one of the hosts and writers of The Wrestling Gods on FOX. He enjoys watching WWE, NXT, Lucha Underground, and the occasional New Japan match. You can also catch him every month attempting to keep order in a fancy suit as PWR's General Manager. You can ask him questions about wrestling, Survivor (yes, the reality show), or whatever you like on his Curiouscat account.
