(This past July Personal Records released a fine debut album [for which we did a premiere] by the Peruvian band Illwind, whose lineup was forged from members of some top South American bands such as Reino Ermitaño, Cobra, Arcada, and Argul. The album provided the impetus for our Comrade Aleks to re-connect with Illwind’s Marcos Koifman, and that produced the following excellent interview with him.)
About 10-15 years ago, the Peruvian band Reino Ermitaño was well-known to doom metal fans. The aesthetics of shamanic rituals, textured riffs, subtle psychedelia, bassist Marcos Koifman’s expressive artwork, and Tanya Duarte’s vocals among other features set the band apart from their contemporaries. Reino Ermitaño was disbanded, and its members joined new outfits, yet Marcos Koifman made his manifest only now with the new doom-act Illwind.
From the ten-minute heroic doom metal anthem “Crimson Skies”, and the down-to-earth “Wanderer” or “Portal,” to the droning stoner-armored “God of Sleep” and the hypnotic “Lucifer’s Mule”, Illwind proves their intention to make something special and refreshing for the underground Doom Cult. It was a proper reason to interview Marcos, as Illwind’s debut album The Unfolding at the End of Light did not go unnoticed for both NCS co-writers and dedicated readers.
