Tzompantli – Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force
Release Date: 17th May 2024
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Doom Metal, OSDM.
FFO: Sanguisugabogg, Frozen Soul, Tribal Gaze, Vomit Forth, Creeping Death, Mortiferum.
Review By: Rick Farley
“Tzompantli have again been summoned from the smoke of the ancient fires with a new offering at the altar of human sacrifice, Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force.”
Album number two from this indigenous tribal blend of crushing death metal and monolithic doom reaches new heights of weightiness and cavernous atmosphere. Echoing the philosophy of harrowing brutality and entrancing gloom, Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force releasing on 20 Buck Spin May 17th, 2024, is a significant level up from their primal debut album Tlazcaltiliztli. Bigger, badder, longer, heavier, if you can even fathom that, all with a compelling sense of desolate melody. Murky cognizance and broken necks are guaranteed.
Tzompantli utilize an atmospheric foundation of native/indigenous heritage and lore, churning out a disgustingly, bludgeoning, groove-based slabs of doomy OSDM. Chainsaw gnarled guitar riffs ripping and tearing. Inhuman deep gutturals bellowed out in a powerful cadence, the rhythm section pounding and steamrolling over you. The use of native instrumentation and percussion intertwined within the colossal wall of sound further embeds the intricacies and maturity of the band this time around. Richly textured but with concrete density, Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force chugs, pounds and tramples the ever-living daylights out of you, laying waste to everything before serenading your broken body with flourishes of melancholic passages. The punishing yet tranquilizing sensory experience of brutality, ancient instrumentation and mournful bleakness reverberates through your skull, sending waves of textured, organic, sick satisfaction.
The grooving stomp of Tlayohualli is mercilessly destructive for a solid portion of the track, belting out bulldozing rhythmic hooks. Just a little over hallway through, it effortlessly shifts its mood slightly with a spellbinding melodic section exuding the beauty of misery. An absolute stunner of a track that will reach in and grab your consciousness as it’s destroying everything.
The sound of rain ushers in a clean guitar passage with primitive sounding drum patterns on Tlaloc Icuic. The melodic guitars and whispered tribal chants lead to ringing out distorted chords big enough to block a tidal wave. Closing track Icnocuicatl is a nine-minute gloom filled behemoth. It weaves between slow, wretched death doom and droning clean guitars. One minute soothing and the next destructive has always been one of my favourite mingling of emotions in metal. This track epitomizes this with ease.
Recorded, produced, mixed, and mastered by Erol Ulug at Bright Light Studios, Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force is as massive sounding as any death doom can get. The visually striking cover art was done by Adam Burke, depicting a Mesoamerican warrior raising his obsidian bladed Macuahuitl to the fiery red sky.
Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force will undoubtedly be received with open arms and horns up in all of the death/doom metal community. Tzompantli is keeping the new wave of OSDM alive and well. By the end of this record, you will have been trance induced, savagely carried away and thoroughly beaten to your near demise, only to be sacrificed to the gods. This is top tier death/doom at its absolute best.
(4.5 / 5)
