The Fellowship of the Gods
Black
metal. But with no Christ, no Satan. No ice, no frost and no glaciation. This
is about heat, blood cults and sacrifices. La
ofrenda suprema, as one song clearly declares. This is about pantheon of
the Gods. This is about Mexico!
All right Pawel,
calm the fucking down...
The album
released in 2009 has one absolutely strong influence coming straight from the
land of Norway, luckily it’s been deeply rooted in first significant offers of
Enslaved “Vikingligr veldi” or Emperor’s self-titled ep. So, the first half of
the nineties is the key here with the best example in “El regreso de Tlaloc”. Pure
Norwegian tribute. But, as for the production, it’s done in a rather
underground way with raw guitar sound. The most important I have not to guess
what guitars try to play. 30 minutes isn’t an one-dimensional soulless musical
onslaught on my senses and the songs are with varied tempos, ok, maybe the last
one “Xaman Ek” is full of slow and majestic atmosphere. The band is considered
as a side-project of Yaotl Mictlan, but as compared to “Xolotl”, it’s
definitely much longer, complex and epic. Yes, Xolotl offers very simple music
with female Spanish vocals of Bruja nobody would ignore it as she is full of
spitting venom and hate and beside of being a bit of monotonous, it sounds
really good. The guitarists don’t reinvent a wheel and of course I didn’t
expect to find here any modern tunes, the whole has its natural flow and it
doesn’t make me yawn – it’s an absolutely added value in such a release. Some
of riffs have Norwegian stamp as mentioned above, some have more moving and
headbanging moments (“Tlamanaliztli”, “Huitzilopotchli”), some have really
catchy riffs (“Chaac” with great slowdowns), some have audible touch of old
Dissection era (“El sol de mañana”). Fast drums aren’t a surprise during the
guitar storm, however blast beats have been served only in the most varied title
track.
To be more
precise in describing the music, one significant element has to be discussed
about. Namely using of folk instruments which is performed in a really good and
exciting way. Mostly in every song, mostly played in slower parts: fifes,
rattle-boxes and the likes. Some songs are opened by short introductions. But
all well-thought-out and perfectly fit to
the whole.
Summing the
thing up, it’s not a secret I’m very interesting in pre-Columbian history and
as for such crews like Xolotl, I am very critical and strict. And in spite of I
always prefer deathly side of metal than black one, this album managed to
convince me to its core and I return quite often to this fascinating world of
the Gods. It seems that this album is the last one as the band isn’t active
anymore, or maybe I’m wrong, who knows, but it would be just great to hear
anything new from them. But now, “La gran limpia de Ix Chel” casts a spell on me
one more time…
…oh, mighty
Ix Chel, take my soul and put it on your womb, please…
78/100
-Tlacaxipehualiztli
(written in March, 2017)
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