Tzompantli's "Temilotzin" is 3:45 of death-doom sung in Nahuatl for Indigenous Peoples' Day
This week's pick is the 3:45 title track of Tzompantli's three-track Temilotzin EP — Indigenous death-doom from a Xibalba guitarist's Pomona project, acoustic, sung entirely in Nahuatl, and released for Indigenous Peoples' Day — with a direct link to listen.
Tzompantli put out Temilotzin on October 12, 2026, through 20 Buck Spin: three tracks, 13:25 in total, released digitally. 1 The record's own tags read metal, black metal, death metal, doom metal and heavy metal. 1
Genre tag
Death-doom names a fusion of death metal and doom metal: the slow tempos and depressive mood of doom, with the deep growls and double-kick drumming of death metal. 2 The style surfaced in the late 1980s and grew uncommon after the 1990s. 2
Tzompantli plays that genre with Mesoamerican instruments in the room. Guitars and bass sit beside huēhuētl drums, death whistles, flutes, shells, shakers and guiros, and the singing is in Náhuatl. 13 A huēhuētl is an upright tubular drum, carved from a hollowed tree trunk with skin stretched across the top. 4
Who is Tzompantli
Tzompantli is the project of Brian "Itztlakamayeh" Ortiz, a guitarist in the California heavy band Xibalba since 2007. 5 Ortiz began it alone in 2019 in Pomona, California, recording at home, and released the EP Tlamanalli that year. 5
The debut album Tlazcaltiliztli followed on 20 Buck Spin, the Pittsburgh metal label, in May 2022, and Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force came out in May 2024. 15 The ensemble credited on the new EP runs to nine people. 3
The band takes its name from the rack. A tzompantli was a wooden frame that Mesoamerican civilisations used to display human skulls in public. 5 Ortiz wanted a project built on Indigenous Mexican history, lore and mythology, and he describes this one in a line: "It's like Mexican Metallica but we paint our faces and worship the sun." 5
Why this release stands out this week
The EP arrived on October 12, 2026, for Indigenous Peoples' Day, as a surprise release. 36 Ortiz describes the recording as a lean into the band's traditional folk side, acoustic and sung entirely in Náhuatl. 3
Ortiz wrote that the EP was made in the aftermath of losing his dog Soprano, along with other family and friends. 3
The lyrics reach back to the 1400s and 1500s. The title track sets a poem by Temilotzin, a Tlacatecatl of Tzilacatlan who fought beside Cuauhtémoc and left one surviving poem, about friendship. 17 "Nitlayocoya" draws instead on Nezahualcoyotl, the poet-king of Texcoco, who ruled from 1431 until 1472. 18
All three tracks are exclusive to this release, and the band frames it as a prelude to its third album, due in 2027. 3 The digital EP is pay-what-you-want on Bandcamp for the release week. 13
Start here
References
- 1Temilotzin | Tzompantli | 20 Buck Spin
20buckspin.bandcamp.com
- 2Death-doom | Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
- 3
- 4Huehuetl | Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
- 5AN NCS INTERVIEW: TZOMPANTLI | No Clean Singing
nocleansinging.com
- 6
- 7Temilotzin | Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
- 8Nezahualcoyotl (tlatoani) | Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
- 9
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