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Xibalba: Hasta la muerte

23/10/12 || Cobal

With so many slow stuff releases this year, I feel home, so fucken home. Not only doom metal I mean, but also sludge, funeral doom, stoner, 70’s-like proto doom rock music and all their possible fusions have flourished since late 2011. In a world where pointless velocity seems to be the only thing metal aims, this might mean the world is about to be over. Or not. Whatever. Xibalba, a sludge/doom/hardcore act from Califas, USA, have just nurtured this whole wave of wicked not-in-a-hurry heavy music with their new an only (to my knowledge) album “Hasta la muerte”.

Standing for “until death”, “Hasta la muerte” is some sort of a concept album I guess. In Mayan culture and mythology, Xibalbá is the underground world ruled by the deities of death and disease, and just by observing the album cover here you could have totally said more or less the kind of theme this work portraits. Now link the dots, you moron.

Perhaps as a parallel imitation of Nordic, Slavic and Germanic bands out there that take the ancient cultures of their lands as an inspiration both musically and thematically, and even sometimes ideologically, there have been several attempts to create heavy metal music inspired in pre-Columbian cultures in Latin America. Sadly, most of these attempts have failed M I S E R A B L Y when trying to fuse pre-Hispanic native music and metal stuff, and most important, when pretending not to make fools of themselves.

One of the only successful efforts was Sepultura’s “Roots”. I know, I know, you’ve been raised to hate it. Whatever (again). Trust me when I tell you there’s more in that record than nu metal. It’s a more than decent work of tribal Brazilian music and hardcore stuff, and next to “Bestial Devastation”, the one and only Caval-Era release I can stand and even enjoy. There, I said it.

On the other hand, there’s plenty of pre-Hispanic themed black and death metal underground acts that have somewhat succeeded at incorporating the super obscure and bloody imagery this cultures had to their work. In these cases, the music is mainly orthodox metal, and it’s in the lyrics and graphic conception of their works that one can see the indigenous influence there.

So, is Hasta la muerte some sort of folky or pagan release? Not really, no. As I said before, what we have here is thick sludgy doom riffs along the whole record. At some point, one gets to hear very hardcore oriented stuff, some death metal influences and even a few thrash hints. Combining as many strong styles and mixing them all up well, the record always gets to sound strong and consistent. I really felt like beating the shit out of some teen fuckos in a slam since the very first time I listened to it.

Although most of the guitar work is quite simplistic – not necessarily simpleton -, guitar players seem to be proficient, that’s for sure. Evidence of that are the very few guitar solos and arrangements that there are here. Bass lines unfortunately are only a support element, so if it is truth they contribute to the massiveness of the final sound, so is that they seldom if not never come to the surface. A damn shame it is.

As for the vocals, they’re shouted hardcore oriented and fit the music well. They provide a distinctive element that certainly would have been lost by throwing growls on top of this already bass and thick mix. Both vocals and lyrics – half of’em sung in Chicano Spanish, by the by – reminded me of later Brujeria’s works, and yes, that’s definitely a positive remark.

You might not know this, but Chicano is the way we Mexicans address the Mexican descendants living in the southern states in the USA, and that normally speak broken English and even worse Spanish. They live in segregated communities and have got a culture of their own; even so, there’s plenty of attempts by this peculiar group to stick to their Mexican and indigenous roots, always resulting in something that ends up becoming fashionable down in Mexico. A quite interesting phenomenon if you ask me.

I mentioned the above precisely because Xibalba’s work fits into that pattern: they’re all about being badass USA Latino dwellers and there’s a very special feeling in their music because of that. Finally, the drums and percussions incorporate the tribal element. They really contribute to the mystic atmosphere in the record and they do it in a very elegant way, meaning they don’t need to go for exotic native lines, but heavy fitting drum playing that resembles ritual ancient music and perfectly fitting into this heavy slow sound.

The way I see things (isn’t reviews writing all about that?), the highest point in this album is the “Hasta la muerte” and “Mala mujer” combo, that by the way, could have been doubly cool if they hadn’t split’em into two separate tracks, but what are you gonna do, right? “Hasta la muerte”, the song, ultimately defines the whole sound in the album, with its super heavy riffage, headbanging provoking rhythm and cool badass Latino lyrics; also, the way it evolves into “Mala mujer” (Spanish for bad/evil woman ) is almost exquisite, something quite rare in such a tough band.

“Mala mujer” features (surprise, surprise) some female vocals that make that mystic and trippy feeling I spoke of even more evident and enjoyable. Also, the drumming here feels more primitive than ever, and at some point it even reminded me of Amon Amarth’s fast air-tombs use, if you know what I mean.

All in all, I really dug this shit. It’s consistent and heavy, and most important of all, it feels authentic and inspired. I’m definitely looking forward to these guys touring my homeland, and also checking out whatever else they release. Let’s just hope they are able to keep up with the underground scene…

Cheers.

8,5

Information
Released: 2012
Label: Southern Lord
Website: Xibalba Facebook
Band
Nate Rebolledo: vocals
Brian Ortiz: guitars
Jensen Hucle: guitars
Bryan Valdivia: bass
Jensen Hucle: drums

Tracklist
01. No Serenity
02. Soledad
03. Laid to Rest
04. Burn
05. Sentenced
06. The Flood
07. Hasta La Muerte
08. Mala Mujer
09. Stoneheart
10. Lujuria
11. Cold

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