The Los Angeles California five piece, infamous for their deliriously heavy hardcore death metal, are proving once again that their colossal clout outweighs the sum of their contemporaries. Tierra Y Libertad finds Xibalba in their most threatening form yet, forcibly colliding elite 90s death metal with reckless down-tuned doom tones and fist-swinging beatdowns which slam harder than a head-on collision. The breakdown, once stigmatised but now a crucial signifier of a savage new breed in extreme metal, has become Xibalba’s crippling modus operandi, refined over the course of their career and reimagined as a new terrifying beast, creating a nefarious intensity on Tierra Y Libertad usually only reserved for majestic black metal, transcendental doom and post-metal, but here hewn from furious violence.Across forty-five minutes and eight tracks of head-turning brutality, Xibalba clarify their disregard for the recommended dosage of unholy stomp that a listener could possibly take, made all the more devastating by the returning hand of Taylor Young (Nails, Twitching Tongues, Disgrace) behind the recording controls at The Pit in Van Nuys. Similarly, Xibalba called upon Dan Seagrave (Dismember, Entombed, Suffocation) to create Tierra Y Libertad’s cover artwork, as with Hasta La Muerte. - Southern Lord Tierra Y Libertad by Xibalba
