apanthropy

Ch’ahom
Anthropic Rites of Sublimation
20 Buck Spin
To Be Released: September 18th, 2026

Rating: 8/10

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1 – Cult of Xaman
2 – Reign of Nohol
3 – Priests of Lik’in
4 – Chosen of Chik’in
5 – Insemination
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A subject fixed on with such specific intensity that it becomes a cornerstone of the band’s identity allows a musical consistency you otherwise wouldn’t hear on albums that are just a ‘collection’ of songs. Focusing on something like Mesoamerican history in a pre-Hispanic context is a deep well of ideas to draw from; culture, ritual, philosophies on death, the fountainhead of mythology, interlocked matrices of brutal warfare, the concepts of the power process driven to extreme degrees. How Ch’ahom approaches the concept takes it from a creative notion to an actual execution of deeply intense, blackened death metal. Ch’ahom are building an entire primal empire out of their identity, ranging from archaic bursts of primitive information to more sophisticated and more aggressive senses of musical tact. Structured in an almost cinematically ritualistic sense, the narrative that unravels through the short violent course of Anthropic Rites of Sublimation is one balanced between ominous noise and torrential metal of death.

Due out September 18th, 2026, through 20 Buck Spin, Anthropic Rites of Sublimation is the band’s sophomore effort, following that of 2023’s Knots of Abhorrence. Founded in 2015, in Germany, Ch’ahom struck repeatedly and violently, like tribal raiding or full-blown man-to-man combat. Five demos between 2016 and 2022 brought the band to life, now all compiled together on 2023’s Camazotz Cult compilation, with the Ts’ono’ot EP carving a pathway that eventually ended the year with Knots of Abhorrence. Covered in the Priests Black Shit kept material flowing into 2025, culminating now with the band’s newest display of ritual decapitation death metal.

20 Buck Spin is not simply ‘releasing records,’ they are establishing a legacy brand built around substantial and convincing extreme music. Ch’ahom sits amongst other sonic relatives in the label’s roster, such as Ritual Mass, Egregore, and Coscradh, and in itself walks a broad territory sweeping together everything from minimalistic death metal to progressive, technical butchery. At times, reminiscent of Teitanblood or a more direct Blood Incantation, the composition that drives Anthropic Rites of Sublimation is largely tilted in favor of dramatic swings in musical contrast, centralized conceptual narrative, and concise, dark death metal. Where Knots of Abhorrence explored musical concepts that were essentially progressive in nature, leading to longer, more structural writing, things become tighter and more compact on the newest record. With only five songs, the record flares and fades in a matter of 29 minutes. Four of the tracks are five minutes or less, with the closer, ‘Insemination,’ pushing toward the 11-minute mark. The record plays out like four consecutive violent strikes to the head, with the final track serving as the moment one is dragged off into the internal hell of the jungle.

‘Cult of Xaman’ is a stark introduction for the uninitiated. This opener begins with a filmic flair of violently blossoming noise and background screams that eventually disintegrate into grinding dark death metal, accented with grinding single-note tremolo that churns like a raging sea, quick palm-muted chord joints connect riffs into one another, while embellished downbeats add a concussive presence to the overall feel. Brief arterial splashes of lead work add a violent light to the seizure of sound, and deep raspy gutturals bring the narrative into frightening reality. It is constantly breaking in shape and riff structure, like the first lapping waves of a grander tsunami to follow, there is a sense of progressiveness that is stifled by forceful changes in motion and dynamics, like musical ideas distorted through violent psychology.

Moving onto the next track, the central narrative becomes more obvious, ‘Reign of Nohol’ begins with another round of instrumental ambience and atmospherics. The discordant blare brings the listener back to stark reality, one aggressive fit of ideas has ended, another round is beginning. There is little time to situate, as another grating assault of discordant riffing and deeply accentuated vocal work barges into the sound space. Strange alien leads announce transitions into rhythmic palm-muted force, with percussive detailing that is between constant states of reinforcement and deconstruction of the song structure. There is little here that teems with 2026 model modern death metal, everything here is essentially rancorous and dark, deep into the annals of the old-school mentality in both composing and production, a true whirlwind of glass and razors in terms of execution.

The narrative continues into the middle of the record, with ‘Priests of Lik’in’ and ‘Chosen of Chik’in’ carrying the listener towards the dark recesses waiting at the end of Anthropic Rites of Sublimation. ‘Priests of Lik’in’ is perhaps the most compact and directly forward assault on the record, comparable to Interdimensional Extinction-era Blood Incantation met with the otherworldly possessive force of 2010’s-era Ritual Mass. It is subsequently one of the more sonically spacious tracks on the album, though that comes in a very restrictive sense, as to be expected, considering this record has zero points of refuge within it. ‘Chosen of Chik’in’ crashes in waves, possessing periods of crushing direct death metal and more atmospheric doom-laden outbursts for detailing.

Each of these four crushing blows ferments together into the final death strike, ‘Insemination.’ Pushing past the ten-minute mark, there is a bit of Knots of Abhorrence at work here, riffs and measures don’t move at such a frantic pace at the early onset of the song, building up like a mound of sacrificed bodies before a landslide of corpses comes down on the listener. There is more deliberate structuring on ‘Insemination,’ there is less fog of war, more time to circle riff structures around and create a deeper, more involved experience, not so much an isolated song. Entering the fourth minute, the song takes a strange, almost mystic detour into atmospheric noise, featuring reverb-drenched guitar, and a light, strobing, mid-tempo blast beat holding rhythm. The atmosphere crumbles into oblivion as churning Incantation-style mid-tempo grinding charges back in. Stacked vocals and manic lead work buried far deep in the background adds a constant state of anxiety against the listener. Throughout its bloody lifespan, ‘Insemination’ perhaps runs parallel to the very aesthetic of ritualized pain.

Ch’ahom have presented us with a ‘zacatapayoli,’ bloody implements of auto sacrifice; obsidian blades, maguey spines, and bone needles, piercing the audio flesh deeply, bringing vermilion hues to sore skin. No points of refuge, no deviation from the narrative, and no saccharine forays into excessive melody, these songs are not sacrifices of random violence; these are sonic offerings as a means of communicating with a higher deity. Exploring the audio concept that existence itself requires reciprocal nourishment, not an examination of anti-religion, explicit pathological gore, or untargeted hate. This is the exploration of a time and place where one’s skull and heart could easily be part of the cultural and political landscape of a brutal and ancient way of life. The essence of such things – the culture, the warfare, the mythology, the ritualism – is made central to the core of the sound, it swallows everything into a foul darkness and leaves little in favor of light and life. One seeking a truly dark and primitive experience, like blood running down the death-architecture of the tzompantli, will make a point to experience the newest offering of Ch’ahom. This is not a reinvention, a reinterpretation, some grand exhibition of artist pomp; this is a brutal, violent flash in the abyss of the underground. Seek it out and bask in its carnage.

Label: 20 Buck Spin
Band: Ch’ahom

AJK