Saturday, October 18, 2014

BALAM AKAB - Xibalba (2006)

Entering the Beyond of Horror


This album isn’t my first meeting with Balam Akab, as I have been sacrificed on the blood altar by their second album “Sacrificio”, released on 2010. This memorable slab of devastating metal was an immediate cause I bought the debut album. Fortunately American Line did a splendid work once again to re-release “Xibalba” with a new front-cover and remastered sound. And what can I say about it? Ha, for sure it is worse than “Sacrificio”, though it is easy to notice that the band developed in a good musical direction…

Musically the debut resides in the chains of black metal. And as compared to the next Balam Akab’s work where black influences are in minority being a small supplement to the whole, “Xibalba” is drowned in such a musical form. And it makes the album just mediocre in the final opinion. Yes, the base here is extremely fast tempo, it seems that Omar is close to destroy his own drum-kit, and it is beyond reproach. The main complaint is the way of guitars playing, simply melodies and riffs that soften general musical transfer. In corroboration of my words, listen to the “Ixquik” song with cloying riffs that make me really piss off and think about “Xibalba” as a good place for children to spend their free time on playing innocent games. It effectively ruined this track, although the middle part (played after 1:48) is definitely better, in death metal way, which brings some new fresh blood to the song. Unfortunately Balam Akab returns to the beginning, bringing this awful melody and lousy (‘melodic’) black metal parts. It’s a pity that this track isn’t made of the middle crushing parts only…

Anyway, I’m not gonna cry over split milk, because the rest of Xibalba is just better! For sure it’s not a boring stuff, every song is decorated by different tempo and two kinds of vocals: Alex Balam uses his throat in black metal screams mostly and deep deathly vomits. Musicians decided to put some short introductions to the whole (first track, the beginning of the “La última batalla”), and it helps to have a better insight into it. All lyrics are written in Spanish (it’s good!) and refer to the Mexican history and beliefs. Well, I called the “La última batalla” song and I have to admit that is like a security zone as it brings slow monumental riffs reminding me a bit of newer offerings of Kataklysm. Yes, this track is different here and it’s a good counterbalance to this overall madness. In turn the first part of “Xibalba” that consists of the title track and “Ek” has characteristic guitar themes and strong black metal influences turning into melodic side of it. The best moments can be found on the end, two songs “Vision de conquista” and “Balam” destroy the rest, both with definitely more interesting riffs, the last track is even a germ cell of the things to come on the next album. It means: more death, less black. And this is the only way for this band.  

Summing all the things up: the main conclusion is that Balam Akab needed this album to create such a relentless album called “Sacrificio”. The debut has defects, especially when the (melodic) black metal parts are poured into the forefront. Sometimes it is digestible, sometimes it is too sweet to be swallowed and makes the music astrand. But, knowing the tunes of “Sacrificio”, it is easy to arrive at a conclusion that Mexicans did homework precisely. Although this process was lasting four years, they chose the right way for its deathly development. The way I followed…  

70/100
-Tlacaxipehualiztli

(written on October, 2014)

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