Utah

Utah:

Yaotl Mictlan

CITY: Salt Lake City
SONGS THAT GOT US: "Nuevo Sol De Teotihuacan," "Nada Verde Crece Aqui"
MYSPACE ADDRESS: myspace.com/yaotlmictlan
RECORD LABEL: Candlelight Records

WHY THEM? Unlike so many other pop styles, metal is primarily about power and the ability to transport the listener to a different world. For Utah's Yaotl Mictlan (rough translation: "Warriors from the Land of the Dead"), that different world is that of a pre-Hispanic continent, with an aesthetic that merges brutal death metal, Mayan imagery, and an over-the-top stage show that is part creative anachronism and part Gwar. That they have concocted such an angry brew of metallic cultural warfare in a conservative place like Salt Lake City makes the band's heads-on-sticks live savagery all the more righteous and dangerous.

BONUS BIT! Yaotl Mictlan were discovered a few years ago by Juan Brujo of Brujeria, themselves no stranger to incendiary death metal sung in Spanish with identity-concealing stage gear.

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