Reviews list for Volahn - Popol Vuh (2025)

Popol Vuh is a total sonic assault on the senses for those who dare to delve into this latest release from the renowned main persona of the Black Twilight Circle, Eduardo “Volahn” Ramirez. It is a complex blend of atmospherics, scathing black metal and indigenous sounds that can be traced back to the Mesoamerican civilisation, the Mayans. Sang entirely in Spanish, these six tracks leave very little room for breath, charging at the listener with an unrelenting fury that is as dizzying as it is terrifying. Popol Vuh is quite the disorientating experience at first, and it took a couple of listens for me to grasp what was going on and understand that despite the raging intensity of the pace, it is a well-balanced record.

This is an album that sounds evil. Reminiscent of the smothering soundscapes of Akhlys at times, Popol Vuh has its roots embedded in the true extreme foundations of the black metal genre. From a guitar perspective, it rarely involves melody when it comes to laying down the grounds of its attack. Favouring acoustics for any requirement to bring the record into less offensive sounding territory, it is the use of native instruments that really sets the sound apart from probably most of what the average black metal fan has heard so far this year. Couple all of this with the icy sonics of Paysage d’hiver and you soon come to an understanding of the quality on offer here.

Absolutely resolute in its Mexican nationalism, this album commemorates “the anniversary of the Spanish defeat at the hands of the triumphant Guatemalan warriors” and heralds “the twilight of Mexican Independence”. The sound of the album portrays superbly the tumult of the history it shares and is delivered with a clear passion. There is a sense of mastery to the album that usually comes when the traditional instrumentation of an ancient civilisation is played so well alongside such an extreme facet of music as it is here. There is almost an astral element to Popol Vuh that I was not expecting to hear at the outset and as such it is an album that has caught me off guard in terms of how much I have ended up enjoying it.