It’s off to South America and Santiago Chile to be exact. Here we find dark practitioners Xalpen raising a blackened storm and invoking “undead magik of the Ancient Shamans, for the glory of the Dark Gods of Chaos!” There’s plenty of subtext here about their career which has seen this trio active since 2014, releasing EP’s, splits and to date two full lengths. I actually wanted to dig a bit deeper and find out who exactly Kwányep was as well as the meaning behind some of the odd track titles here such as ‘Kash Wayèwèn Qèr’ (the deep speaking of the spirits) we are informed. Unfortunately, on the whole though, searches just led back to the band so further illumination on their exact mythos was unfortunately unavailable. They seem to be all about praising death through dark arts yet have some parts here with tribal chants and even an interlude of whale song, which suggests some deep spirituality. If you have seen a promo photo of the band though and ended up doing a double take, yes it is the familiar live Watain player Alvaro Lillo in the group under the name of Tarem Keláash here.
Occultist energy is channelled effectively through their craft and main songs weave from malevolent rages with plenty of wrath about them such as the nihilistic thwack of ‘K´yewé’ to more sinister trawls through atmospheric dark canyons. They have no problem drawing things out to quite formidable lengths and conjure up plenty of dread images with both a raw and melodic approach which is skilfully unveiled over the album’s 48-minute running time. From drive and death belches, the aforementioned number hits a peak and suddenly quite strangely downs tools prior to the rattling bass work of ‘Kòlpèwsh.’ There are at times a Swedish feel to the melodicism and tempos vary. Vocals go from hellish snarls to bursts of clean and over the top parts here, the drummer suddenly powers away, a solo guitar riff steams through the track and it’s certainly keeping me on my toes. The lengthy title track seems to have published lyrics, it’s all about carrying death, mythic mountains, shamanism and paying tribute to gnostic forces from what I can tell. It also makes for a mighty song, parts of which seethe with violence, other shimmering in grandiosity. The tribal elders chant in the slower instrumental part and there’s a great sense of atmosphere conveyed.
The scathing ‘Beast From The East’ is an immediate pounding rhythmic thruster, it gets right in your face and is a fiery sermon of primitivism and fury. The bewitching journey has some guest involvement notably George Emmanuel of Lucifer’s Child providing some guitar parts and E. Forcas of Degial and Watain live taking over the drumming on stand out track ‘Moon-Woman.’ The hooks on this one are fantastic and it has a Dissection clad stormy feeling about it as it is energetically pumped out. The only thing I didn’t particularly engage with here was the bonus song, a cover of cult Spanish act Angeles del Infierno number ‘Diabolicca.’ Apart from that, this is a solid release well worthy of attention and spending time on.
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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