Demo

Son Iok mix indigenous latin music with a primitive blend of thrashy death metal. These two elements are primarily segregated, although a chant does occasionally work its way into the metal material. Although this could have been cool, the metal and non-metal styling really have no reason to be together, and while alright for a demo the recording quality could use a little work. That said their rough, the early extreme metal sound is somewhat cool.

The indigenous influences feature flutes (who would have thought?), sparse tribal drumming and echoing chants. The chants are similar to what you might hear in North American indigenous music. These parts are generally used for track intros and feel somewhat tacked on, as they don't really compliment the metal and generally don't try to weave themselves into heavier moments. While indigenous music can be very hard to mix into heavier, extreme material, Resistant Culture is proof that it can be done. The metal itself feels utterly primitive, and harkens back to a time when extreme metal was making its rough emergence on the metal scene.

The guitar tone is largely responsible for their primal sound. Some of the riffs are cool, but a lot are just alright. Although I know the bass is there because there is a section in "Libre" that is meant to bass driven where the bass is faintly audible. However, for the most part it is much too low in the mix. Despite a thick crunchy guitar tone, this makes the demo sound a bit thinner than it should. Not much to say about the drumming, dude knows what he's doing well enough I suppose. The are two type of vocals, a deep gruff clean vocal that is quite abrasive in itself and a death grunt. The cleans generally aren't as good and the death metal vocals are usually much more powerful. "Caballeros Águila" serves as the highlight as the album. Featuring some infectious riffing and a great clean(er) vocal performance, this track sits a level above the rest.

This demo isn't bad, it's just not fully realized. The indigenous music is a decent enough little oddity, but seems a bit tertiary as it never really works itself into the meat of the music. The primitive, early extreme metal vibe is cool, even though it could have been played a bit better. This is a fair first offering from this Mexican band, but surely doesn't live up to its own potential. That said, at least they're doing something a bit different, even if those unique parts essentially only serve as interludes. Also, turn that bass knob up next time!