Review by Ben for Xibalba - Años en infierno (2020)

This is my first experience with U.S. band Xibalba. They appear to have been a metalcore outfit at one point, but this latest album is very much a death metal release with a couple of doom metal tracks tacked onto the end. As that description suggests, the album has a strange flow to it, having a heavy pummelling death metal approach for the most part, before changing gears entirely for the rest. I actually the enjoy the production, and when I focus on individual moving parts, Años en infierno seems to have all the ingredients to be a rewarding experience. The issue is really in the songwriting though, with all the chopping and changing resulting in several tracks that lack any sort of identity. It's a bit sad when the most memorable tracks are an instrumental, that admittedly has very cool tribal drumming throughout, and a lengthy doom metal track that's somewhat tarnished by sub-par clean vocal sections. I have a feeling these guys could do something that really hits home, but they haven't got their crafting sensibilities in order at this point.