Cabrakaän Presents Mexican Folklore With Modern Melodic Metal On New Album Aztlán
Cabrkaaän was formed in 2011 by drummer Marko Cipäktli and vocalist Pat Cuikani who are both from Toluca, Mexico, and are currently based in Canada. They work with indigenous Mexican artists to incorporate authentic pre-Hispanic instruments like ocarinas, flutes, percussion instruments, and more in their dramatic, melodic music. Their latest work is Aztlán, a thematic album, with 12 tracks that each represent a different facet of their cultural story. The theme is centered on the Spanish conquest – colonization and the defeat of Mexico’s Aztec empire, Tenochtitlán. The band shares their excitement for the release:
“We hope that you’re as excited as we are for Aztlán! This album is incredibly close to our hearts, and we hope that you can hear it. It’s a part of us. It represents our perseverance to continue onward with our music despite countless challenges and setbacks. It gave us the opportunity to create something important and beautiful and to share a piece of our culture with the world. We hope you find something in our music that resonates with you. Our hearts and souls are intertwined with Aztlán. We can’t wait for you to hear what we’ve created.”
On this album, you’ll find that Cabrkaaän’s new sound is an evolved, matured version of their familiar style: Folkloric elements, enchanting orchestral arrangements, operatic vocals, and heavy sounds. For Aztlán, Cipäktli developed orchestral elements and arrangements with the audience in mind. He says that he wants the audience to feel the message through the music, and that orchestration always adds a different atmosphere and a layer of emotion for the listener to feel and gain something valuable from.
As a whole, Aztlán tells different stories from Mexican history, as you will see in the lyrics and track listing. They especially focused on percussion as it is one of civilization’s first musical instruments. The album is recommended for fans of Maria Grever, Linda Ronstadt, and Megadeth.
First off, care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Nice to meet you! I’m Marko, the drummer for Cabrakaän. We originally formed our band in Mexico City, but we now call Canada our home. The band was formed by Pat Cuikani (the vocalist) and I. She came to my recording studio for a different project and we found a lot of overlapping musical interests. Even though I wanted to form a death metal band at the time, she had a background and formal training in opera. From there, we created a style of music that fit both our interests. It was her idea to incorporate pre-hispanic themes in our music, and it was an idea that ended up defining who we are as a band, which has been incredibly rewarding. We’ve released two studio albums since then: Songs from Anahuac (2014) and Cem Anahuac My Home (2019) and another on the way very soon, Aztlán (November 17th, 2023).
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
On November 17, we’ll release our third album, Aztlán. This is our most ambitious release to date, representing our perseverance to continue onward with our music despite many challenges and setbacks. It gave us the opportunity to create something important and beautiful and to share a piece of our culture with the world. It’s been a challenge to complete this album for many reasons, and I’m so incredibly proud of what we created together. The album is thematic and based on events/mythologies leading up to, and following the Spanish Conquest. On this album, you’ll find that our new sound includes folkloric elements, enchanting orchestral arrangements, operatic vocals, and of course, a lot of heavy thrash-inspired sounds. We hope you love it.
We also recently released our documentary, Journey to Aztlán, and our first two singles from the album (Mictlán and Fuego). The documentary is meant to share more of our culture and the reasons we feel it’s important to mix folklore with metal, especially to broader audiences that might not know as much about our history. For anyone interested in checking it out, it’s streaming on our YouTube channel.
Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?
We’re currently working on a plan for upcoming shows and tours! Since our release is coming up, we want to share our music with live audiences as soon as the opportunity presents itself. We’re looking forward to making announcements in the coming months!
If given the chance, which Canadian artist would you love to work with in the future?
Since we are quite new to Canada, we’re still learning about the Canadian music scene! I have a ton of respect for Devin Townsend and recently had the chance to see him perform live on his Lightwork tour. Since I am also an audio engineer and sound designer, I have a huge appreciation for his signature “wall of sound” style within his music. I’m sure a collaboration with him would result in a very dynamic sound for Cabrakaän!
What’s your goal for 2024?
2024 will be a very exciting year for us! Our main goal is to promote Aztlán to as wide and diverse an audience as possible. Plans are still in the works, but we’re very excited about what’s coming and can’t wait to share with our fans.