Axeman - Arrive

Today is Volahn day at Metal Bandcamp! Now, who is this Volahn?, you ask. According to Metal Archives he is Eduardo Ramírez; a member of many bands within the infamous Black Twilight Circle. He is also the man behind Crepúsculo Negro (Black Twilight in Spanish), the cassette label created to document the artistic endeavours of the Circle.

However Volahn is also Axeman. And on Arrive demo from 2010, he is the sole purveyor of very blackened and thrashy death metal; replete with scorching guitar histrionics, galloping rhythms worthy of a demented Iron Maiden, and croaky vocals spitting out venomous fare about ancient Aztec rituals.

a river filled with scorpions
a river filled with blood
a river filled with pus

enmity of hatred discord of life
ancient world of the dead
crossroads of four
to confuse and beguile

It's primitive and raw sounding, you can hear the lovely sound of the amplifiers hissing and moaning, but it is also quite epic and psychedelic. As the song describes your souls journey through the ordeals of the Aztec underworld, the drumming turns decidedly unhinged, and Volahn goes nuts in a furious death metal assault. When you finally end up in Xibalba - the place of fear - he celebrates with more demented galloping, and a blazing solo. And all of this is happening during the first song "Metnal"

The other two don't have quite that scope. "Kosmic Death" is steadfast blackened death metal, with lyrics about priests drawing blood "from tongue & phallus" and offering it to the gods. "Attestor of Doom & Rebirth" is like the crazy whirlwind version of the unhinged parts of Metnal. As this review from Metal Archives says "The whole thing sounds as if Volahn is fighting with demons in his head and body over who's going to play all the instruments all at once". I think it's safe to say that you'll find some delightfully intense music (and lyrics) on this short demo.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]