More prehispanic stuff, Guahaihoque from Colombia.
Guahaihoque is the spirit of death, keeper at eternity´s threshold. . He preserves |n the depth dominions of his sacred lagoon the archaic flame of life and death, eternal and ethereal. it is soul in good and evil… it is us, and nature all with time and space, also representing a spiritual path onward the magnificence of human being, as sons of sun we´re, holding on values and principles of memory and ancient tradition.
Many years of efforts & battle to preserve the core of our music passed by, as we introduced ancestral woodwind instruments, as: “Quena-flute, Quenacho-flute, Sikus, Panpipe, Zampoña, Malta”. These native instruments add a mystical & unique spiritual core to the whole Ancient Epic sound.
Guahaihoque constructs its music and sound as a sinergy of various artifacts of Metal “Death / Black / Thrash / Doom / Heavy” and ritual ancestral music originary of this continent… the concept is still growing, as result we have made a recall to our forefathers through emotional & dreaming songs, full of honour, pride & glory, with millenary spirit almost forgotten by today…s mankind, so we can´t deny our origin, legacy and knowledge, a gift from our forefathers, it´s in our soul.
- Quote last.fm ("Guahaihoque")
Guahaihoque are an interesting project, definitely a good quality prehispanic metal band, with heavy folk elements, most evident with the use of woodwind. I do feel the mixing of the different elements in the music doesn't seem to entirely fit, but is good nonetheless. This full length album also seems a bit short.
Definitely check out if into prehispanic stuff which is heavy on folk/woodwind.
Album Name: The Return of the Ancient Gods
Band: Guahaihoque
Genre: Extreme Epic/Folk Metal
Year: 2007
Country: Colombia
Track Listing:
And here is the re-release of the split Tremor and Corubo made in 2009, but this time entitled Ancestral Metal, with new artwork, but otherwise, it does not appear overly different to previous version.
The online/mp3 version came out sometime this year (though I was confused for a long time, the download at their myspace page coming up as the 2009 version for quite a while), and apparently a physical version will be released in 2011.
This download is courtesy of their official myspace page.
Just briefly, Auka Runa (of Chile) and Flight Condor (of Colombia) are two prehispanic Metal bands that have taken my interest of late.
Neither appear to have any official releases as of yet (but you can find one song of Auka Runa on the second compilation on the prehispanic BM post), thus don't appear on Metal-Archives.com and there is little information about either band, but I am eagerly keeping an eye on their movements.
Translated from the Prehispanic Metal | Folk Metal Latinoamericano group from last.fm:
It's a genre inspired by the vast cultural wealth Whose desire is to rescue Latin America throughlyrical, most of the time, are engagedancestors and the use of instruments of eachcountry, hopeful that American societylisten to this music and integrates a bit more toancient cultures of America. Also leada metal identity in Latin America.
Prehispanic Black Metal is a relatively unknown genre, but is slowing gaining recognition.
Looking at the name etymologically, it is derived of music inspired by indigenous culture predating the colonisation of the Spanish. This is then obviously strongly linked to music from Latin America (if not exclusive to, at least at this point), including countries colonised by other imperialist powers (such as Brazil with the Portuguese). This music takes inspiration and pride in both their culture (stories, traditions, etc) and music (indigenous instruments, singing/chanting etc). Not to mention their connection to the Earth. And this manifests itself as the sounds of animals and nature - or it's destruction.
This is evidently related to Folk music, though very much with it's own character - without getting into the many complex particularities, their specific relationship to colonisation and continued oppression marks a very distinctive difference here.
And because of this, I think it is difficult to categorise certain bands that imitate this music, yet do not share this history, this culture, this ancestry. For example, there is one such Russian band. I have not much listened to that band, but a Russian band imitating all this strikes me as strange, if not problematic, to say the least.
And of course, add all this to Black Metal. Though some bands may simply be different variations of Metal, the strongest tendency is variations of Black Metal.
And here are some compilations related to thus:
Compilation:
Metal Nativo Latinoamericano
01 - Aztra - Alturas (Ecuador) 02 - Ek – Hijos del sol (México) 03 - Guahahihoque – Along a Path (Colombia) 04 - Ch'aska – Imperio Caído (Perú) 05 - Yaotl Mictlán – Resistencia Itzae (México) 06 - Yanaconas – Tupac Amaru (Argentina) 07 - Folkheim – 1781 (Chile) 08 - Wangelen – Bajo Hualles y Canelos (Chile) 09 - Kukulcán – Señor de la guerra Huitzilopochtli (México) 10 - Kranium – Reencarnación (Perú) 11 - Paghania – Santuario del Puma (Chile) 12 - Chaquen – Donde los ángeles caminan (Colombia) 13 - Balam Akab – La última batalla (México) 14 - Yana Raymi – Magia Oscura (Perú) 15 - Mictlán – Ce Miquiztli (México) 16 - Diadema Tristis – Myth from the Ruins (Argentina)
And now I begin the posts relating to prehispanic BM (or similar), and in this specific case they refer to themselves as Indigenous BM. I'm of course referring to the band Corubo from Brazil. To give credit where credit is due, I discovered this band from a thread at the RABM forum.
Corubo have been around since 1999, well before the Cascadian BM scene came into being. Brazil, and Latin America in general have a very prominent (black) metal scene, and mix this with the strong current of radical environmentalism I have heard about in Brazil (but not limited to), perhaps it is no surprise to see a band like this. Even some Norwegian BM bands recognise Brazil being a pioneer of BM. Check out the wikipedia article on Sacrofago for specific details. Corubo's lyrics are in multiple languages, such as some indigenous languages of their region. Infact, their name is a reference to a term used for one of the tribes in the Amazon not exposed to civilisation. The political content of their music is obvious, anti-colonial, ecological, anarchistic.
Musically, there is difintely quite a variation amongst their different releases. I'm much more a fan of their earlier stuff, such as their demo and the Mordaz EP. I guess I feel their earlier stuff has more variation, less a wall of ambience. I think maybe the earlier stuff also incorporates elemental sounds better. Like the lightning on Mordaz, and though not elemental, the felling of trees on the demo. And of course I just generally have a soft spot for music, like BM, that is not from Europe or North America.
They also have a split with the Colombian band Tremor, who have similar beliefs, but a very different type of BM. I still like it though. I'm generally more an ambient/atmospheric BM guy though.
Check it out. All this stuff is availible for download from their myspace anyway.
Album Name: The End of Sorrow / Guarani Oporonhenói Gueteri
Band: Tremor/Corubo
Genre: Black, Death Metal/Black Metal, Ambient
Year: 2009
Country: Colombia/Brazil
Track Listing:
There is also due to be a re-release (or new version?) of the Tremor/Corubo split entitled Ancestral Metal sometime this year, aswell as a re-master of Corubo's lastest release.
