Psilocybin Driven Phantasies
Teonanácatl’s name was the only
reason I bought this tape many years ago. I knew nothing about the band, but as
I’ve been Mexican enthusiast since the ages, my choice was quite obvious. And
before writing anything on it, it’s necessary to explain the thing to have a
full picture of what this mysterious word actually means. Well, the first its
trace can be found in Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España written by a Franciscan
friar Bernardino de Sahagún. And you may be surprised as Teonanácatl is just a mushroom commonly used in pre-Columbian times,
but not a component of daily diet. Because of its strong psychedelic effects like
states of euphoria, altered thinking process and spiritual experiences caused
by two alkaloids psilocybin and psilocin, it was consumed during various
celebrations and rites. And I say you, these Slovaks had something in common
with all the stuff, because their musical offer isn’t… normal.
It’s… fucking brutal, sick and
bizarre. And definitely it is not easy to handle with, you know, death / grind
with keyboards but not casual or fleeting in the storm of sounds, being not
only an interesting junctor between the songs, but something really important
with an inscription “I Am Chaos” on the forehead heaps of times. A bit of Grief
of Emerald from the debut, but Slovaks are more brutal, a bit of Pan.Thy.Monium,
but Slovaks haven’t got this touch of genius. Although I prefer music without
it, I’m not a main enemy of keyboards in metal, and got used to it very quickly.
Yep, I started with this instrument, but don’t be afraid, there are guitars and
drums as well, being the main basis of extreme musical show. Good production
helped to succeed, however drums, as opposed to the grinding parts of bass, should
be more taken care of. For sure, this kind of guitar sound realization reminds
me of Swedish Pan.Thy.Monium once again and like their famous madmen, they try
to complicate the sounds all the time juggling the tempo and delivering queer
ideas. But expect neither pulp nor boondoggle, as initiative chaos becomes just
well-thought-out mature portion of killing music. Also it’s rather easy to find
in the guitar structures references to Dying Fetus especially in “The
Inexperienced Butcher” and “P.P.C.P.” or general pure Napalm Death brutality,
yet such riffs modeling and insane rhythm section push the band to some kind of
original dimension.
But! The opening moments aren’t
easy for death / grind freak-outs as the intro for “Old Lemarchand” is a proper
stuff for gothic or melodic doom band, bringing beautiful memorable tunes. This
idyll doesn’t last forever and Mentality strikes the senses with drums cannonade
and animal-like vocals after tens seconds. Definitely Vlado spits his lungs out
in varied forms of gutturals and high-pitched screams combinations. As a band
buried many years ago, this material is still a proof of own musicians vision
and never gets old. The music, it still kicks my ass without mercy with its
eight equal recognizable frantic compositions. Each listen delivers different
states of mind (yes, psilocybin!), there is always something new to face with
and I am not writing about table-tennis tunes between two last songs, some
Chinese intercalation (“It’s About Time”) or crushing “Mental E.T.” when band
doesn’t want to show any speed-ups wittingly holding listener in doom smashing trap.
All right, need to sum it up: strange at first meeting, still strange and very
good afterwards. Courageous and mature. Overvaliant and storm-bringing. Sometimes
simple, but mostly broken and crazy. So that’s the Teonanácatl dominion. Interesting should be one fact that I
started to meet this stuff during my vacation pharmaceutical practice in provincial
psychiatric hospital in my mother town. Hm…
Well, Slovak underground is very
poor in my collection, this tape is the only one I have been worshipping since
the first sudden hit. What’s more, while asked in the night, Martin Vaculik and
Marek Hamšík are
not my first choices when it comes to Slovakia land. Hope you know why!
90/100
-Tlacaxipehualiztli
(written in September / October, 2016)
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