Can someone please explain to me why I am not seeing endless praise for Xibalba? Considering the wrap other bands of similar style are getting, mind you many also signed to the same label (Southern Lord), this band should be at the top of the rocky mountain. After the crushingly heavy 'Madre Mia Gracias Por Los Dias' that came out last year, Xibalba returns quickly with the equally as heavy 'Hasta La Muetre'. FAARRKK!
Dare I say it, Xibalba is the heaviest thing in the crust/core scene right now. HLA is full of riffs that have this compressed and droning tone that is incredibly brutal. Compared to 'Madre Mia...' which was more slow and grinding, HLA brings some pace to the table as well and this doesn't make anything seem weaker. In fact, it just feels more devastating. The other cool thing is how they can vary the speed in songs and really get your head nodding. The way 'No Serenity' cuts back to this slow head slamming riff towards the end is sick, or the galloping disjointed feel of 'Laid To Rest' that ends into a ringing lead before the rumbling finish comes in, sure to put cracks through any land.
And with this, you need crushing drums and do they sure deliver here. It sounds like these fills are leading the earthquake taking place. The kicks rumble with fury, the toms and snares feel as though they are being belted with sledgehammers instead of drumsticks. Only a dark room with the thickest cement walls could handle this beat down. Even when you here the cymbals tap like at the beginning of 'Sentenced', you just hang in there waiting impatiently for the thunderous thuds to begin and eventually march and jog away. Gotta like the tribal like patterns in 'The Flood' as well, the way it draws out with those leads is monstrous! The ridiculous twirling beats in 'Mala Mujer' too.
Even vocally, you can feel that deep and compressed bellow shouting from the dark cracks in the floor. Like a beast. It isn't anything out of the ordinary, but it has the right force and fire to stand with the crushing that is occurring.
Overall, this album doesn't sound like it was overdone in the production. It genuinely feels that this would crush absolutely anything in its path. Scary to think what this would be like if I saw Xibalba live. Would I still have my hearing afterwards? In fact, I'd probably be crushed to death..
When I put this up with the other 'core' stuff I have heard this year, this clearly is at the top. The complete package. The brutality, the crush, the devastation that might be lacking in those other bands is all found right here along with the energy, the force and the intensity. 'Madre Mia...' was good, but 'Hasta La Muetre' destroys it. One chaotic effort!
Ikil
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