Now onto their third album, the UK's Xerath are quickly becoming one of the 'must hear' bands in extreme metal. Taking a style that mixes bits of Strapping Young Lad & Meshuggah with sweeping, well thought out keyboard orchestrations, the music of Xerath is not only crushingly heavy, but achingly beautiful at the same time. The band, Richard Thomson (vocals), Conor McGouran (guitars), Michael Putman (drums), and Christopher Clark (bass), certainly have the chops, and display the rage, but there's a sense of craftsmanship here on III that you don't often see on albums of this nature. "2053" is just epic sounding, the pulverizing, groove laden riffing non-stop, as Thompson bellows & screams over these intricate riffs and pile-driving rhythms, all the while these alluring keyboard soundscapes just sweep you off your feet. "Autonomous" again hits you with that great combination of sizzling riff-o-rama and luscious orchestrations, while "Bleed This Body Clean" instantly brings to mind the great Devin Townsend and his old band Strapping Young Lad, as massive, industrial metal styled riffs, clean & growling vocals, and waves of addicting keys just grab you by the neck and refuse to let go. Other instantly impressive tracks here include the symphonic death metal attack of "Demigod Doctrine", the sweeping progressive extreme metal gem "I Hold Dominion" (some incredible guitar work on this one), the complex, Meshuggah inspired "Ironclad", the mix of prog & groove metal on the alluring "Sentinels", and the soaring, melodic two-part suite "Veil", which contains some of the most gorgeous keyboard orchestrations on the album.
For a perfect balance between the brutality of extreme metal and the beauty of symphonic progressive rock, you really can't go wrong with III from Xerath. Candlelight Records has a real winner on their hands here with this one, and it shouldn't be long before this band is a household name in the metal community.
Track Listing
1. 2053
2. Autonomous
3. Bleed This Body Clean
4. Death Defiant
5. Demigod Doctrine
6. I Hold Dominion
7. I Hunt For The Weak
8. Ironclad
9. Passenger
10. Sentinels
11. The Chaos Reign
12. Veil - Part 1
13. Veil - Part 2
14. Witness
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