Tomorrow, the second album from German black/death metal band Ch'ahom releases. 

Antrophic Rites of Sublimation is a fascinating album, combining black metal with sounds and themes of pre-Hispanic South America. There's a deep fiction to the album as well that explores otherworldly forces, cults, and self-destructive urges. I wanted to learn more about this album, so I reached out to the band via email. Members "A.G.A." and "S.P.S." responded, and the entire conversation is below, lightly edited for grammar. The complete album stream is also embedded below. 

For those who have not yet heard your band, who is Ch'ahom and how would you describe your sound?

S.P.S.: Hey there, we're Ch'ahom from Essen, Germany. Formed in 2015. We usually describe what we do as Black/Death Metal. I tend to think of two branches for our sound: One is the sound on the demos, which is worshipping Von, Sadomator, and Xibalba Itzaes. Then there are the albums where we take a more progressive route, taking into consideration bands like Morbid Angel but also Krautrock like Novalis.

Where does the interest in pre-Hispanic Mexico come from? Is this part of the personal heritage of the band?

A.G.A.: It’s not just an interest in pre-Hispanic Mexico, but more broadly in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica and South America. It all started quite conventionally with a documentary about cave divers who were diving in the cenotes of Yucatán and came across bones and other remains of ancient advanced civilizations there. That sparked my interest and I wanted to find out more about it. So I bought books, watched more documentaries and attended lectures to satisfy my curiosity. At some point, I thought of combining this interest with music, something I’d already started back then with Morbid Blood Kult and continued with Ch’ahom. Furthermore, a major source of inspiration for all the intros – which we recorded ourselves – is, for example, the music of Jorge Reyes or Antonio Zepeda. But last but not least, we mustn’t forget inspirations such as Xibalba Itzaes, Xulub Mitnal or Black Twilight Circle.

Anthropic Rites of Sublimation is a very ambitious concept album. Can you please explain the central idea behind the album?

S.P.S.: This album is a concept album in a fictional setting centered around a cenote of extraordinary extent, spanning multiple kilometres in diameter and depth. This cenote is the center of a mystical attraction, drawing people from all over the globe in a mass exodus to move to the cenote and settle down at its edge. The process of this calling and resulting migration is described in our song "Ts'ono'ot" that was released as a single in 2023. This call goes out to "all those searching," it is attracting the lost ones, the uncertain, those looking for more than meets the eye. It is also a call to sacrifice yourself to the cenote, it appeals to the will to see the afterlife, to eradicate oneself, to eliminate the ego by hurling oneself down into the deep abyss. The new Album takes place when these people have arrived at the cenote and have built out four cultures, each centered around their own practices of dealing with the urge of self-erasure. We drew heavy inspiration from pre-Hispanic cultures while not trying to create something historically accurate here.

Each of the first four tracks focuses on a specific culture or settlement that's drawn to the mystical cenote that's at the center of the album's story. Can you explain these for different cultures?

S.P.S.: So in the West we have the Cult of the Chosen of Chik'in. This is a highly developed culture that has managed to project the call of the cenote onto a chosen one, a sort of high priest that is to be sacrificed per proxy. The rituals of this cult are huge and incorporate every member in a trance where their wishes, hopes, dreams and fears are to be transferred into the chosen one.

In the East we have Lik'in, where members sacrifice body parts in a religious ceremony.

The North is controlled by the Reign of Nohol, an inegalitarian society that captures and sacrifices slaves. Their highest casts have access to a high standard of living and pride themselves on representative architecture.

Lastly there is the Cult of Xaman, this is where all those gather who can't repress or sublimate the urge any longer. This is the last station for those who will actually throw themselves down into the abyss.

Mind you, this is all highly fictional! You can find out more in the sleeve of the album, where we put some texts aside the lyrics.

The album draws from real pre-Hispanic cultures, Freudian psychology, and cult behavior. Were there also any fictional influences that inspired the creation of this concept?

S.P.S.: Definitely! I think you have to mention Lovecraft, always. Then there's Clive Barker, R.W. Chambers, Pasolini's films like "Medea," "Arabian Nights“ or "Canterbury Tales," Fellini, Hermann Broch's "Death of Virgil," and so much more. There's always a handful or prominent influences that you consciously draw from and then there's a million things you read, saw or listened to in the back of your head. And a huge part of cause goes to mythology as you implied. Oh yeah and the "Eskimo" Album by The Residents now comes to my mind. It's not necessarily one of my favorites, but I was impressed by the idea to have some sort of prose to read alongside the music.

Because this site is theoretically about metal and fitness, who is the band member who is the most interested in fitness? What's his go-to workout style or routine?

A.G.A.: I think I’m the one who’s most interested in fitness. At the moment, I’m doing a lot of full-body kettlebell sessions or bodyweight exercises, which are always easy to fit in at home, even with a busy schedule. Otherwise, I stick to a standard three-day split when my schedule allows and I manage to get to the gym.

Ch'ahom's Anthropic Rites of Sublimation is out Friday, September 18 via 20 Buck Spin