Yaotl Mictlan – Dentro del Manto Gris de Chaac (2010)

Yaotl Mictlan has always been one of the most interesting bands that we have ever heard to come out of Mexico. With a mixture of indigenous Aztec and Mayan elements, the band crafts their Death/Black Metal with a ‘folk-ish’ aspect, but the end result is something that you wouldn’t expect. The band’s sound is indeed very heavy and just uses these elements to highlight parts of their songs, not to revolve around them.

In these days, every band out there has to have a gimmick in order to be successful (or have ridiculously good musicians), and Yaotl Mictlan’s indigenous gimmick is what actually makes them stand out from countless average Death/Black Metal bands in the world. However, this gimmick is not just for show purposes since the band spends quite a good deal of effort to make their lyrics historically relevant and incorporate part of their heritage into their music.

Featuring members of Shub Niggurath, Ibex Throne, and Xolotl, Yaotl Mictlan has an immediate appeal for creating superb Death/Black Metal songs, and they deliver in every single level. With crushing distorted guitar riffing and blasting drumming, the band builds their music in a very raw and brutal way. This allows the different kind of indigenous elements to shine more freely, the perfect example of this is the song “Garra de Jaguar” that features tribal drumming, flutes and rattles.

With very powerful riffing and demonic screams, Yaotl Mictlan is a very solid band that crafts very melodic songs that greatly differ from the ‘extreme’ brutality that most Death/Black Metal bands are trying to achieve. The pace of the music is furious at times, but it allows all elements to flow and craft nice melodic passages that are usually accompanied by a different ‘indigenous’ element. The use of clean vocals gives and extra dimension to the music and adds to the ‘ritualistic’ nature of the band’s songs.

The band’s first full-length “Guerreros De La Tierra De Los Muertos” suffered from the issue that it was way too long for some people to handle since it clocked around 70 minutes. The band’s current release “Dentro del Manto Gris de Chaac” features around 50 minutes of music and in our opinion is just about right for a release of this nature. We think that in this case, less amount of music is the perfect balance to let the listener enjoy and discover all of Yaotl Mictlan’s interesting and different elements.

Release: August 10th, 2010

Country: USA