Here is the second album from this Mexican supergroup of sorts featuring members of Impiety and Ravager, and despite some slightly more primal production values than Veganza, Katun is a vitriolic, slightly ethnic tinged slice of blistering Angelcorpse worship, that outdoes the source material’s latest effort.
With a slightly muffled rums and more raw guitars, Hacavitz seem to be trying to distance themselves from the tight, clinical tones of their obvious peers, but musically the band’s undercurrent is unmistakable even with the odd Mayan/Aztec injection (i.e. “Tenieblas – Tenochtitlan”) as tracks like “Motlatito yn Quetzalcoatl”, “Ya Notsi de Huitzilare” and “Rex Funebre” are searing, rasp filled slabs of chaotically precise blackened fury.
A few more controlled moments break up the swirling vortex as the aforementioned ambience tinged “Tenieblas – Tenochtitlan”, “Serpents Ov Smoke” and the closing moments of “Rex Funebre” deliver some caustic rumbling amid the sonic furor, but otherwise, Katun simply smokes and seethes for its slightly long 51 minute duration.
The production shift, while a bit jarring, actually suites the material with Antimo Buonnano being fairly high in the mix with his animalistic rasps and drummer Oscar Garcia, while being a tad muffled, still appears to be the Mexican Tim Yeung with his tightly bombastic assault on the skins and the overall sound is raw but powerful and organic-no pro tool clicking or triggering here.
While Krisiun seems to be the first South American extreme metal band that most folks talk about, Hacavitz certainly, even with only two albums, are a band that deserves the same level of respect and recognition.
