July 2023 Feature Release - The Fallen Edition

Another month flies by, which means it's time to select a new feature release for The Fallen. As it's my turn to choose, I've gone with Tzompantli's Tlazcaltiliztli album from last year. I personally found a lot to enjoy when I checked this out and particularly recall that it some nice groovy death riffs and tribal aspects that combined very well with the more traditional death doom. I see that Sonny and Xephyr have already rated it, but I feel it's worth highlighting for those that might not have experienced it yet.

It would be great to read what you all think of it either below or in review format.

https://metal.academy/releases/36828

As Ben notes, this is a release I am already familiar with, so here is my review:

Tlazcaltiliztli is an album of thick as molasses death doom riffs and awesome bellowing growls for vocals that sound like a wounded bison and remind me somewhat of Japanese death doomers Coffins. Whilst the bulk of the album consists of this crushingly brutal assault on the listener's sensibilities there are also some really cool indiginous Mexican folk interludes that make for something a bit different and are undeniably an interesting diversion. The death doom side of things isn't the most earth-shatteringly awesome or original metal you are ever likely to hear, but it is authentic and it's chugging riffs are heavy as fuck and if you are a fan of extreme doom metal then that, along with the more interesting indiginous music interjections, should at least merit you checking it out (just don't try spelling it!) Me, I'm always a sucker for anything that sounds like it was derived from the early Autopsy sound, which this assuredly is, so for me this is a big thumbs up. Sadly, it is very short at 32 minutes, but it's probably better to leave the listener wanting more than boring them with overlong LPs so I have no complaints about that either.

4/5

Yeah, I really enjoyed this feature too. I wasn't familiar with Tzompantli prior to this album being released but ended up giving it a couple of fairly casual listens after reading Ben's review last year. On paper it should have been totally up my alley & it certainly delivered with a crushingly dense guitar tone, super-deep death growls & a plethora of ultra-heavy riffs. This revisit has only further enhanced my position with Tzompantli's sound sitting somewhere between death/doom & your more conventional death metal sound. I prefer the doomier & more atmospheric side of their sound as the straight-up death metal sections tends to be a touch generic, even if they're still pretty effective due to the excellent production & execution. Mortiferum, diSEMBOWELMENT & Spectral Voice are pretty good points of reference.

4/5

Kind of surprised this one's considered death/doom metal, for my money it was mostly death metal. That's not an insult, just an observation after hearing an album in which songs are constantly fast and aggressive, with doom being limited to maybe a few short sections. It's resoundingly okay otherwise.

I certainly agree that it should reside in The Horde as a dual tagging but I think you’d find that the ratio of doom/death to death metal falls a little towards the doom/death side of the equation here if you actually timed it.

Brian Ortiz of Xibalba fame has put together a groovy yet ultimately abysmally dank piece of death doom on his debut full length release. Having never really hit it off with Xibalba in either their death metal or earlier metalcore guises, I was not expecting to engage so well with Tlazcaltiliztli as well as I have done. Over a short, yet still fulfilling enough runtime, Tzompantli do a great job of scratching my sick yet catchy death metal itch. The infectious groove of the title track stays with me for days after I hear it and I find myself constantly going back to that track in particular.

There is more hear than just some memorable riffs though. There are cavernous and guttural vocals that reverberate through the tracks (with a less successful, hardcore-esque shouting on occasion also) and some straight up d-beat drumming to remind me that this is no ordinary death doom release. With lots of references to indigenous and ritualistic practice, Tlazcaltiliztli deploys a variety of instruments to keep things interesting and morbidly atmospherics. Utilising death whistles, animal flutes, didgeridoos, shells, shakers and a Huehuetl drum circle to mention a few of the unusual instruments that sit alongside the more traditional guitars and standard drums, this is a record where the artists (Brian is assisted by a couple of others in the studio with G-Bone being the only other full-time member of the band) wear their heritage on their sleeves with pride and execute a consistent and entertaining album as a result.

It feels longer than the actual runtime somehow when you play this through and the tracks are all quite evenly measured in length apart from album closer Yaotiacahuanetzli which goes over the seven-and-a-half-minute mark. Were it not for those occasional shouty vocals, I could have awarded this a perfect score. Immediate and menacing and steeped in cultural references that ooze ritualistic undertakings - count me in!

4.5/5

I seem to be one of the only ones who were familiar with the name Xibalba before checking out this debut full length record from Tzompantli. I heard 2020's Años en infierno by sheer accident and enjoyed the record enough, since for a death doom record, the album decided to focus most of its time on the "death" portion of that hybrid; a sound that I was not as familiar with as the "doom" focused hybrids.

And that also seems to be the case with Tlazcaltiliztli. "Tlatzintilli" begins with a heavy percussive element while the guitar plays a slowed down rhythmic motif. It's certainly an unfamiliar sound in the doom or death metal spheres and left me interested to hear where the band could go from there. Unfortunately, the record kind of finds its groove around "Eltequi" and does not attempt these sorts of hybrid sounds again; instead keeping the death and doom parts isolated. That's because the second half of the album spends a lot more time focused on the Indigenous timbres, which all told, isn't very much. But as I have said with many extreme albums in the past that add objectively softer passages (such as a string/orchestra section), their contributions always feel subdued to the loud guitars, percussion and vocals.

On this record though, these limited elements are fascinating and rarely interfere with the straight up metal passages so as to not overburden the listener. It also keeps them fresh when they return. As for the straight up metal passages, even though I mentioned how stale it can get later on with the death and doom sections kept apart, I cannot deny that some of these riffs are filthy; mostly on the tracks "Tlatzintilli", the title track, "Ohtlatocopailcahualuztli" and the closer "Yaotiacahuanetzli". If you're looking for a death-doom album with heavy emphasis on the "death" as opposed to the much more popular "doom" stylings of My Dying Bride or Swallow the Sun, this record can scratch some real itches.

3.5/5