Meridion - Rise From The South

Artist: Meridion

Album: Rise From The South

Label: Self-Released

Year: 2018

Country: Chile

Genre: Death Metal

Meridion are a death metal band from Santiago, Chile. This is their debut effort. The band create otherworldy angular and swirling death metal that incorporates electronics in a way that is hypnotic and almost trance-inducing and unlike any other band I've heard. The band pays tribute to the Selk'nam tribes of Southern Chile, with the album cover depicting a man in traditional ceremonial body pain and mask that are centers of the Kloketen rite of passage that Selk'nam men underwent. 

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Jeksolok - Jetaksor

 

Artist: Jeksolok 

Album: Jetaksor 

Label: Self-Released

Year: 2019 

Country: Chile 

Genre: Post-Black Metal

Jeksolok are a one-man post-black metal band from Punta Arenas in the southern tip of Chile. This is their debut EP. The EP starts with a melancholic guitar intro before soaring into the first track, "Saltaxar" a beautiful song that balances lush atmosphere and piercing catharsis of bands like Woods of Desolation and Cold Body Radiation. The following song "C'ek'eslak" has a much colder and more brooding atmosphere, capturing the feeling of the cold and rigid terrain of the band's southern homelands. A beautiful and dreamy instrumental track "Os Jeterhana" precedes the title track, an anthemic conclusion teeming with pride and glory. 

Thematically, the band takes inspiration from the mythology and cosmology of the Kawésqar indigenous people of the Chilean Patagonia.  It is believed that their history in the region extends over six-thousands years! Unfortunately like many indigenous cultures, the culture and language of the Kawésqar is being practiced by fewer people as time passes. Jeksolok's music is powerful not only by its own right but also because it is preserving part of an ancient culture. 

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Eltun - 1553

Artist: Eltun 

Album: 1553

 Label: Self-Released

Year: 2016 

Country: Chile 

Genre: Black Metal

Eltun are a pagan/black metal band from Santiago, Chile. The band take their name for the word "cemetery" in the Mapudungun, the indigenous language of the Mapuche people, native to the southern region of Chile. 1553 is their sophomore release. The EP is inspired by the first wave of the Arauco War, where the warriors Caupolicán and Lautaro led the Mapuche to victory against Spanish colonizer Pedro de Valdivia. Sonically, the band takes inspiration from Scandinavian bands, adapting the classic cold sounds of the north to the frigid winters of the Andes Mountains. Songs like "Bajan Con Antorchas" also incorporates the trompe, a traditional Mapuche jaw harp. This is music that is battle ready and aims for glory, with the band incapsulating the valiant spirit of their Mapuche ancestors and delivering power pagan black metal marching towards victory.

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Kalkumakuñ - Profundidad Abismal

Band: Kalkumakuñ

Album: Profundidad Abismal

Label: Self-Released

Year: 2016

Country: Chile

Genre: Black Thrash Metal

Kalkumakuñ are a black thrash metal band from Nueva Imperial, Chile. The is a recorded version of the band's debut demo, which was initially released in 2013. Along with the routine themes of evil and misanthropy that is to be expected with black metal, the band also write songs about the mythology of their Mapuche ancestors, who are a peoples indigenous to Chile, Peru, and Argentina. Across six tracks Kalkumakuñ lay putrid waste, conjuring malevolent spirits such as the Trekle-Wekufe with their fierce and wicked black thrash.

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