Ah Dzam Poop Ek

If the usage of the word "Poop" in the title means anything, it’s probably that these guys don't give a damn if "ignorant" English speakers like us chuckle at it. Because they've got a more important job to do, namely making grim and necrotic black metal dedicated to the obscure world of the old Mayans. Black metal that focuses on Pre-Columbian cultures is still seen as an odd thing and was seen as even more so back in the 1990s when Xibalba released this. So, with an aesthetic so unusual, this was bound to attract some attention with people hoping for a strange new twist on the sound.

Unfortunately, this wasn't a massive departure into tribal music that stretched black metal's boundaries. Instead, these guys end up playing things pretty close to the Darkthrone blueprint with a stripped-down play-style and a lot more focus on what terrors the swirling guitars can conjure up out of the darkness. That isn't to say that they don't just use their Mayan image for show. Xibalba does make use of indigenous Mexican woodwinds and percussion every now and again to set up their atmosphere and show that they come from the mists of the Mexican jungle rather than the icy hills of Norway. These ancient tribal sounds are used to decent effect on "Carchah" as well as the intros to some other songs to help set up a more primal atmosphere. They are still used very lightly. It gives you enough to provide an image to the music, but part of me says that more could have been done with these instruments to create a more unique and ritualistic sound. More could have been done to give some color to this experience.

That's not to say that this album is in any way bad. Hell no! These guys know their way around mixing a smoky, occult tone with some very belligerent, yet simple riffing. It's a nasty guitar tone that will remind some people of A Blaze in the Northern Sky or Svartalvheim, both of which are known for having positively vile and churning tones. Good primal riff progressions make for some hypnotic darkened trudges on "Furor Antiquus" and "Sac Ibteeloob Cab" with the crescendo of that song being particularly satisfying. On songs like these where the structure is more developed, allowing for a journey-like song structure, this band does best. When this sound gets stretched into evil melodies or blended with blast drumming, it gets the insidious feeling of black metal just right.

Though these riffs (and the overall sound) are more stripped-down than the crushers you'd expect to hear on say A Blaze in the Northern Sky or Svartalvheim. They tend to be more geared towards a simple rampage of darkened grime. That more stripped-back sound on Ah Dzam Poop Ek does create some limitations when the songs themselves are simple. For example, "Bolontiku Uahom" doesn't really go anywhere despite having some good buildup from the tribal percussion. There's also the fact that only a few songs on here stick out, and even then, they don't stray too far from the Darkthrone-y mold they were cast in.

While Ah Dzam Poop Ek is an admirable album that helped pioneer the use of Mesoamerican and tribal themes in black metal, it simply stands as decent. If you thirst for something like Darkthrone or Ancient before they started LARPing, then this will sate your appetite. It captures a very cryptic and occult atmosphere very well whilst having a lot of energy left over for some good old-fashioned hostility. I just wish they did more to incorporate their Mesomaerican theme into their music, or that they could come up with some riffing or rhythmic strategies that help to set them apart sonically from their influences. You'll get some replay value out of the longer tracks since Xibalba put the most effort into those along with the best riff ideas. But, in many ways, Ah Dzam Poop Ek stays close to the beaten path of black metal and could have done well to be much more adventurous.