It’s on Southern Lord. Ergo, it’s gonna be heavy. But just how heavy is the latest offering from Californian purveyors of hardcore death metal? Deliriously heavy, apparently. And that’s no mere hyperbole. I mean, this is ferocious.
A wordless throat sound rises from the depths, immediately followed by a frenzied blizzard of black noise. The songs aren’t short, but their pace is blistering, and it’s staggering that human hands could sustain such violence and power for durations in excess of five minutes. But then, one has to wonder of Xibalba are truly mortal beings or something not of this world.
Just when it seems that it couldn’t possibly get any harder, heavier or darker, the title track slams in, a throbbing juggernaut of guitars, pounding drums and snarling vocals, the full fury of hell unleashed and compressed into five minutes of pure energy.
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The album’s 12-minute closer marks a dramatic change of pace, beginning slowly, sedately and melodically, before the crushing guitars arrive in a landslide. It’s an impressive feat that a band responsible for wreaking such devastating brutality should also prove themselves capable of gut-pulling beauty on an equally immense scale.
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