Yaotl Mictlan – Dentro del Manto Gris de Chaac

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Just about every brand of folk music has an entire black metal subgenre full of it, but Yaotl Mictlan seem to stand alone in their fusion of ancient Mayan instruments and blastbeats. The lyrics are all in Spanish, and the less wholesome parts of ancient Mexican tribal culture – you know, like severed heads rolling down the steps of pyramid temples – are evoked in spades. The downfall of many bands who seek to fuse traditional folk music with black metal is that they get too hung up on properly evoking the culture they mean to pay tribute to and forget that a black metal album should ultimately succeed as a black metal album. With Dentro del Manto Gris de Chaac, Yaotl Mictlan embrace blackness and find room around the edges for the instruments made of shell and bone rather than vice versa. The balance they strike works perfectly for the music, which like so much atmospheric black metal owes its biggest debt to Burzum. One hesitates to even slap this record with the folk black metal tag considering how effective the purely black passages work. The Mayan aspects exist as accents rather than show-stealers, and tracks like Garra de Jaguar – Ocho Venado and Huelitiyotl Mexica have some of the most gloriously dissonant black metal riffs of the year. When the odd instrumentation, as in the intro to album closer Nada Verde Crece Aqui, does arrive, it’s always with a purpose and contributes to the greater atmosphere of the LP. All in all, Dentro… is a solid second effort by a band who have the potential to grow into one of the best in black metal.

Written by Brad Sanders
More: 2011, Albums, Black Metal, Quick.Play Reviews, Yaotl Mictlan