Quite honestly, this album annoys me.
Given, this band tries do something unique by combining doom with metalcore, the result comes across as boring by mixing two genres that are already plagued by limitations that contradict each other. Instead of creating a unique fusion like Behemoth did with black and death metal on 2007's Apostasy or Ihsahn did with the saxophone and black metal, Xibalba sounds schizophrenic rather than frightening.
Drums are nothing special, playing ridiculously slow rhythms. Doom guitars need not even be bothered explained. Vocals sound sufficient but uninteresting or powerful. All in all, the technical qualifications of the band are quite lackluster. Production sounds waaaay too muddy to be appreciated as a form of heaviness, as said before, whilst it supports the band's sludge/doom tendencies, it makes their metalcore sections sound dull and blunt. Songwriting is pretty much monotonous throughout the entire album.
Do not get the entire album, there are a couple of interesting songs though. The female vocals on 'Mala Mujer' are shocking to the point of refreshing and gel well with the droning guitars to create a uniquely melancholic song. The other song is the instrumental 'The Flood', that is probably the only time the band create something unique with tribal drum patterns, spacey guitar riffs stitched together with droning bass that create a surprisingly introspective music backdrop amidst the relative shallowness of this otherwise annoying album.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Passable - One or two good songs, a bit of flow
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