Xibalba

Unlike the majority of releases that uncreative metal journalists call "punishing," Madre Mia Gracias Por Los Dias lives up to the most brutal intentions of that adjective. For a band so strongly tied to the hard-hitting elements of breakdown-heavy '90s hardcore, what more could one hope for? This southern California wrecking crew display an alternate strain of the genre, one that carries metal influences without straying into the needless complications and spastic elements of what became deathcore, favouring instead the power of the almighty groove and a sincerity and extremity that crushes 90-percent of the bands in the aforementioned divergent style. This is a natural continuation of hardcore, maintaining a stripped-down aesthetic with excessively low tunings that bring Disembodied, amongst others, to mind. When combined with the added aggression of good, old-fashioned U.S. death metal brutality, as in the Cannibal Corpse-like intro to "Cold," you have no choice but to give respect to these new bringers of pain.