The K'awiil Wrath
Look at the front cover. Can you feel this eyebeam of
a beautiful woman, this wild desire coming straight to your thirsty soul? Can
you really feel it? And maybe are you ready for something more, something
unusual, something like… bloodletting ritual? If these matters appeal to you,
this album may occur to be a real splendid experience…
Yes, “a splendid experience” is exactly what comes to
my mind when trying to name the music by the band called Balam Akab. I may be
wrong thus, you should judge it. There are a few important issues worth
mentioning concerning Balam Akab’s music. The members of this band come from
Mexico and they are unfriendly towards the English language. Typical Spanish
rules? I don’t know but that’s good for the start, isn’t it? The latter thing is a question of “Sacrificio” being
a full album or just an Ep? The band considers this effort as an album (the
second one in their career) and I wouldn’t call this release an Ep as it
consists of six songs lasting 30 minutes all together. Of course, there are
many metal bands with materials being shorter but it is not the length but the
quality what matters the most and that is why I am going to write about the
music.
Firstly, Balam Akab plays death metal and this fact is
indisputable. The second thing may be rather unpleasant for the band, maybe “Sacrificio”
is not an original production and maybe nothing new on the metal scene, but don’t
get me wrong, I realize it is very hard to create a ripper in death metal, but
with a little effort, it could have been something new, something more
original. Personally, I believe that ‘non-originality’ is not a great
defectiveness. The album production has a world standard, I mean the sounds I
can hear really fit to the general perception, everything is just ok. It’s not
as sterile as Hate Eternal or other today metal bands, so I can state that
Balam Akab has another positive feature. I have already written some words
earlier about originality and now, for certain, I can announce that Mexicans
are the answer for Krisiun, mainly
because of drum work (though Omar doesn’t play so extremely fast, there are
many blasts raging in music) and specific kind of melody (esp. title track
“Sacrificio” and “ Kin”). I have some
good news for the band and for sure this is not a disadvantage, what’s more,
this piece of metal is more convincing than last albums of Krisiun. The lyrics
are written in Spanish and tell us the history of Mexico before the conquest
(next positive feature). Vocals vary from typical death metal growls to
blackish-like screams and other vulgar shrieks. Together with furious drum
cannonade guitar riffs play havoc. Yes, I wrote something about melody, but
this isn’t impudent and sloppy and you can’t describe it as a melodic death
metal. Balam Akab skillfully doses fast parts, blasts and slowing downs (mostly
on the beginning of the songs), the potential listener won’t go to the kingdom
of boredom and hibernation.
It’s hard to say which one is the best song on the
album. Maybe “Tohil”, maybe the last one “Kin (nacer del sol)”. All tracks are
on the high level, there is no weak song. Tracks numbered 1, 3 and 4 are opened
with gloomy and sinister introductions being, in fact, some folk-like
compositions. What about short content analysis? Coming straight to the second
song “Tohil” I can perfectly see a fine cooperation of guitars and drums after
slowing down (circa 1:45). The incoming hurricane is merciless, the band offers
you a truly piece of death metal. The same feelings come to my mind from the
title track. After the longest intro (1:35), ceaseless guitar and murderous
drum massacre destroy everything on the way, this song also has the only shy
guitar solo lead which is almost covered by the riffs. The fifth composition is based on the very
interesting guitar work, it ends suddenly making this song the shortest one.
Mentioned above “Kin” has one really surprising thing. After two minutes of
music bestiality, the band slows down. But this is not an usual intervention,
these beautiful sounds remind me of old times and Hypocrisy “The Fourth
Dimension” album. Really excellent thing! After 35 seconds the song comes back
to the proper way, then again some slowing down and slaughterous speed-up.
To sum it up, I can assure you that “Sacrificio” is a
very good death metal album (despite of some words about originality). And to
be honest, I must declare this stuff as maturing through the next listening.
Perhaps, it is not the first league, but I was really pleased with it. Only six
songs, but Balam Akab prefers quality to quantity. Without boring time and
bullshits, without leading keys and female gothic stuff. Pure metal on the board.
Moreover, an important thing is the metal underground which still can breed
such a good metal act. Sometimes I wonder, whether the Mayan gods feel any
satisfaction while listening to these death metal anthems?
85/100
-Tlacaxipehualiztli
(previously written for Encyclopaedia Metallum, on December, 2010, now modified a bit)
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