Hello, I'm no crazy, I can SEE this material in the render view!
The material is inside an asset that has some embedded stuff.
When I go to the material node's parameters, the material path is : `chsop("../../mat_back")`
But I cannot find the material in the path here. HELP!

what does the expression say when evaluated? (middle click the parameter label)

Inspecting the geometry spreadsheet can also tell you how the material path was evaluated.

Thanks Jsmack. When I middle click, the expression just disappears. Also I can't find anything useful in the geo spreadsheet.
Could it be there's no material?

Grendizer
Could it be there's no material?

seems like it.

Maybe the material is assigned at SOP level
Is there a s@shop_materialapth attribute?

No such attribute. I think the author of the asset forgot to remove this expression and as a result the object has no material. The blackish color I was seeing in the render was generated by a ramp inside a color. Sorry I should have been more observant! But thanks for the help...