Yohualli: an uneasy ride through darkness and chaotic hell

Yohualli, self-titled, US, Odio Bronce, cassette (2015)

“Yohualli” means “night” or “darkness” in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs and this self-titled EP promises its listeners an uneasy ride into that realm. After an acoustic guitar introduction the recording gets stuck into the business end of its brand of atmospheric BM with an incredibly dense and manic performance of searing noise guitar texture shower, screeching wail and thunderous machine-gun percussion. If you’re expecting any breaks within the music, through which rays of soft and gentle light might shine, you’ll be disappointed because this work is a real roller-coaster journey through several layers of chaotic hell.

“Nocturnity – I”, the first of three tracks with the same name, is a descent into tumultuous madness and plumbs the depths of churning chaos therein. Even under all the mad rush, melody is present and there’s an air of sadness and despair. “Nocturnity – III” (part II must have fallen off the EP for some reason or maybe the tracks haven’t been labelled properly) is more straightforward and minimal BM still careening ahead at an insane speed with howling or shrill screaming lead guitar soloing. The texture is also dense with ongoing showers of noise guitar and screaming voices, and the atmosphere is hideously evil and suffocating. The last track in the trilogy is even more structured and melodic though no less aggressive or brimming with acid guitar shower. As this track progresses, the music becomes ever more demented with maniac guitar tracing silver liquid doodles all over the cosmos.

Between the “Nocturnity” tracks are short pieces “Noise I” and “Noise II” which are free-form deep space BM exercises in guitar howl and feedback backed by special effects. Reverb on these tracks heighten the sense of isolation and desolation, and tremolo guitar chords squiggling up the scale emphasise the alien nature of the soundscapes. Unseen malevolent demons inhabiting the far reaches of the cosmos sigh and groan in the background.

The recording wraps up with “Miquiztli” (“Death”) which extends the Nocturnity trilogy continuing almost forever on its path of crazed demonic madness. I’d have liked to say more about the music but to be honest it doesn’t offer anything new which might resolve the anger or intensity of all that’s gone before.

Without doubt the highlights here are the short noise tracks which are very hypnotic and trance-like in a very black and hostile way. Funnily, these tracks are much louder and clearer than the rest of the work, as though their sole purpose is to soften up the listener for more mainstream BM punishment. There is also something deeply sorrowful present, as though even the malevolent forces hidden in the universe are desperately unhappy. The rest of the music is not bad but the longer tracks, especially the last, could have been edited for length. The final track needs to be more emphatic and less lengthy – when death is looming on the horizon, is there need to torture the listener with its finality to the point of banality?