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.

Historical rancor, ethnicity, tradition, and prophecy are all combined with darker heavy metal to give as a result an album totally significant in its concept as in its music.

These Mexicans came from the underworld to say, "Gentlemen, here in the so-called New World, there are many reasons for hatred, resentment, and anger against Christianity! We've come to tell about our pain and fury through unholy black metal.". Therefore, 1994 began a historic dialogue through the raw sound of guitars, drums, and tearing of voice. Since then many metalheads have understood and accepted as valid their blackened and native language.

From my point of view, the harmony achieved by the sound of the strings is outstanding. All raw strumming, arpeggios, and accompaniments with melodies bring an atmosphere of darkness and desolation where hatred grows up and expresses its rage. The vocalization of Marco Ek Balam is ideal to make one feel that all this music comes from the underworld (Xibalba). In particular, I emphasize the bass, which at times plays a leading role in creating fear as in the case of "Furor Antiquus". Another great success is the atmosphere that the drum speed creates, combining times of slowness that generates interesting expectations and emotions.

Xibalba uses the pre-Hispanic instruments in a wonderful way as they allow us to imagine rituals and the worship of pagan gods. When I listen to their sounds (until then, new to the black metal) I feel that all is happening in the damp darkness of the underworld and they remind me of the mythological battles mentioned in the Popol Vuh stories.

Ah Dzam Poop Ek will be a paradigm of Mexican and American heavy metal in the future. Today is an example of the successful combination between ethnic identities and music for Indians,t herefore let's celebrate because it's a classic album forever.

The immediately striking aspect of Xibalba's Ah Dzam Poop Ek is its upbeatness. Yes, the rawness of their sound is comparable to Darkthrone, but the feeling of their music is far different. There is a driving quality to the riffing and vocalls that retains the best qualities of hardcore punk, and infuses that style into a modern black metal concoction. Most of the album consists of violent black thrash material with a strong sense of melody. Every composition has four or five distinct but easily melded sections of verses and bridges, giving each of these songs their own identity. Perhaps the best example of this is 'In Daemones Imperium', which begins with an infectious tremolo melody progressing to a mid-paced dark groove, and ending in a violent tumult.

Throughout the abrasiveness that is Ah Dzam Pook Ek, interacting lead and rhythm guitars produce addictive melody and, at times, beauty. 'Carchah' contains two brief 'Mayan' musical interludes that frame an ambient, instrumental guitar passage. The whole album is interspersed with these subtle, always welcome diversions.

On the surface, this is caustic, raw black metal. The longer the album seeps in, the more Xibalba's varied musical influences bubble to the surface. The ingenious guitar work is the central ingredient here. A passionate and mesmeric release. 9.5/10

This has to be one of the greatest releases to come out of Mexico, since the Mexicans released the "tamale" unto us all. This release manages to blend a stable amount of folk music with some very enjoyable "destructive" black metal. "Ah Dzam Poop Ek" opens with a nice black metal assault in "Furor Antiquus", in which you pretty much get a taste of what the rest of the album will sound like (black metal wise), just add "war drums" and other folk instruments to some of them. Ok, to say that the rest of the album sounds exactly like the opening track, is a bit incorrect, because it doesn't come off as repetitive an any way. The lyrics are in English and also in Latin (I think).


Xibalba do a very good job on this album, and the year in which it was released is a plus, (offering something different then those "frost-bitten kingdoms"). If you are interested in some "raw sounding" folkish metal that doesn't have themes about trolls, Vikings, or any other European or Eurasian mythology, and instead is on the topic of Native American mythology / history, and you want some actual black metal with your folk, then this is definitely worth checking out. It's just one of those solid black metal releases.