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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