El tigre del sur

I previously had a vague notion I was going to check out Volahn one day, and I knew a bit about the Black Twilight Circle scene and have enjoyed what I heard. A friend urged me to check this one song EP and am I ever glad I did. El Tigre Del Sur is one hell of a ride and one of the more interesting black metal songs I have stumbled upon in a while. The black metal in the song gives us a variety of kick-ass riffs and the twist at the end just fucking blew me away. As one can discern from the cover art, this 14 minute mini-odyssey is no run-of-the-mill black metal track.

The song is about a 1911 showdown in the wild west. Although the lyrics are in Spanish and I'm not sure I would have been able to make them out anyway, the music does an exemplary job at fitting the narration. The story starts in media res with guns blaring and bodies falling. The guitar riffs madly flittering from one high note to the next feels like the embodiment of the exciting spectacle of violence that has made the wild west such a perennial fascination in American culture. After what comes off like a metal take on spaghetti western, we get somewhat more traditional black metal riffs (at least compared to the first set of riffs). There's a lot of blazing melody and the driving drum beat conjures imagery of outlaw-clad horses galloping at full speed. Volahn do a fantastic job at mixing in a wild west outlaw vibe into their black metal, and it never comes off as a cheap novelty ploy. It certainly doesn't hurt that they have riffs as awesome as these.

But wait, there's more! The last half of the song is straight up spaghetti western stuff. I've always wanted to hear more metal that could mix in some Ennio Morricone vibes. The only real reference point I can think of off the top of my head of these two worlds colliding is Leeches of Lore (who I definitely can dig). However, they play a different type of metal and Volahn don't have the same self-conscious goofiness to them. The whammy bar abuse really works here, and the Volahn fellow seems to be just as comfortable in the midst of an acoustic-backed desert jam as he does wildly careening up and down the fret board during a frenzied black metal riff.

Man, I've been getting kind of burnt out from metal lately just because of the sheer quantity I've been listening to, and it really makes me happy that I found a song that got me excited about the genre all over again at the time I did. This really is one of the coolest one song EPs I've discovered in a long time. On paper this song might seem weird and disjointed, but the sheer strength of Volahn's songwriting holds everything together. And again, it never hurts to have killer riffs.

Whenever people hear that Rhinocervs and its associated projects are one of my Special Interests, they inevitably ask me about the Black Twilight Circle and other associated projects, asking for recommendations. I then have to admit that despite being close collaborators with the Rhinocervs dudes, the BTC scene has mostly bored me from what I've heard of it (which is quite a bit). I generally feel like their material at large is unique but a bit self-derivative and not especially memorable, with a couple notable exceptions like Arizmenda's Stillbirth in the Temple of Venus. At the center of this scene is Volahn, who I have to say never completely wowed me based on the material I was familiar with from their early-to-middle period. Aq-ab-al was a good step in the right direction in my eyes, with vibrant and unique riffs, but still bogged down by needlessly raw production. While I haven't heard any of their splits since then, I have to say that this single-song EP unexpectedly knocked my socks right off. If this is what I've been missing out on with Volahn for the past few years, I've got some great listening ahead of me!

The 14-minute song is almost like a 7" with a black metal A side and an Ennio Morricone spaghetti western B side. First good sign is that no time is spent with a gradual build-up or Atmosphere Building - the song demonstrates the chords it's going to use and then just lets you fucking have it in a violent storm of beautiful riffing and blasting. The opening chords are actually nearly identical to "A Virulent Wind" by Odz Manouk, which may explain why these riffs leave such a strong impact on me. The production is great this time around; everything is given the right amount of space, from the shimmering, panned guitars to the frantic chanted vocals, and it's clear to the listener that this is music bursting at the seams with vigor and passion. The song builds from riff to excellent riff, with the key change at 4:15 of special note. A lead guitar heralds in a furious burst of riffs in the new key, abandoning the bright daytime feeling of the first few minutes and plunging the song straight into pitch dark night, inverting the riffs and making them suddenly sound incredibly regal and malevolent.

The song gracefully transitions to its second movement, "Mi General Zapata", a pensive spaghetti western dirge. Based around an acoustic stripping-down of the opening chord progression, Eddie transitions to singing in a mournful, valedictory voice, augmented by wind ambient, organ synths, and washed-out, delay pedal-driven acid guitar soloing. After hearing this EP a few times, I was surprised to realize that this section of the song is just as long as the black metal - it goes by so fast, which I think is a good indicator of how well this material holds its own. I won't pretend to have any deep insight into the techniques used here, since the closest thing that I listen to regularly is probably Sun City Girls, who are still a couple hundred miles off. But a lot of the acid rock soloing reminds me of what I like about the more psych-rock, less avant-folk sections of, say, Torch of the Mystics, which is a big compliment in my book. Suffice to say, I think this could've turned out really bad as a lot of half-black metal, half-something else releases do (Filosofem, anyone? Who can honestly say that the ambient on that album is just as good as the black metal?), but the acoustic material flows beautifully from the metal and forms a satisfying, natural conclusion to the release.

Hearing mediocre releases like the split with Tukaaria and Dimensiónes del trance kósmico, I never would have guessed in a million years that Volahn would have made one of my favorite metal releases in any given year, and yet here we are. This release is unconditionally great, hands-down. While I can't say I had any special feelings about Emiliano Zapata coming into El Tigre del sur, the band will certainly convince you of his merit by the end of this release. Definitely give this a listen or 10.