Labels: Closed Casket Activities
Review by: Alex Deller
Xibalba, back again, and in a semi-digestible three-track lump. As per usual, things are weighty and onerous. Riffs plunge, drums pound and the singer sounds like he’s shitting himself a slimy pink tail of small intestine while trying to bench more than he should. The chun of it all is, basically, merciless. And yet… it’s all a bit too monochrome. Admittedly, I’d initially enjoyed the sheer relentless monotony of earlier releases, but now I’m craving something more than heaviness and headlong, dead-eyed charge. I want a hook or a riff I can remember. I want to be made to feel something beyond the metronomic clunk of crowbar against cranium. And I’m rather beginning to think that Xibalba aren’t really the band to deliver any of this.