Donde habitan los muertos

This was a completely new experience for me. First off I’ve never heard of the band before, and I can’t recall that I've ever heard of a combination of folk music and thrash metal. I’m not really sure if they lyrically dwell within the Mayan or Aztec cultural history, I don’t know any Spanish so I can’t decipher the lyrics all too well. But with a track title like "Tlacoquixtilixtli" my guess is Aztec. I mean their gods had weird names like that. One thing that really bugs me with the promo is that I didn’t get a back cover for the CD, and the booklet is all fucked up when it comes to the lyrics. There are lyrics to eight tracks, but only six of them are unique as "Estado conciente después de la muerte" and "Tlacoquixtilixtli" have been printed twice.

"Panoramas de mictlan" starts off with a great folk music intro consisting of flutes, drumming, rattles and whatnot. It really gets the fantasy going, imagining proud Hispanic warriors of ancient times, before the Europeans came and hollowed out their culture and heritage. I love these short moments of folk music included throughout the record. Unfortunately I’m not too thrilled by thrash metal, so I can’t say the rest of the album does much for me.

I don’t imagine they had a very big budget for the recording, ‘cause the sound is quite terrible. It’s too raw and thin, sounding very early 80ies demo-like. And so does the metal in many ways. From the thrashy death metal I get some Sepultura vibes at times, as well as both Venom and Testament. But since I’m not a fan of the genre I might be way of base, it’s not like I have much to compare it to knowledge-wise. The music’s very rough-edged, and not extremely tight either. Both the riffing and drumming is spastic, and I generally don’t like thrash riffing. At times it feels a little like they’re trying to show off their skills, but not really well. So when the screechy guitar solos sets in I start to twitch.

It sounds very ordinary to me, like many other acts. But then again since the recording is fairly old I can let it slide. The metal is not the most interesting I’ve ever heard, or very interesting at all, honestly. But it’s still not bad. And what really makes the album interesting is the folk influence and unorthodox instrumentation that comes with it. So if you’re a fan of dirty old school thrashy death metal I would recommend the album, but it’s not for me. But nonetheless it’s a re-release of an old demo that shows one of Mexico’s earlier acts, and included on the CD is also (horribly sounding and looking) live footage of "Panoramas de mictlan". I suppose it will interest some, but as I said it’s not for me.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net