AN NCS PREMIERE: XENOSIS — “PROPHETIC BLIGHT”

 

The Connecticut-based death metal band Xenosis released their third album Devour and Birth in early 2018. Since then, the band has changed, with a revised lineup that now includes second guitarist Keith Benway as well as new bassist and backing vocalist Craig Breitsprecher (of Fires in the Distance), as well as guitarist Kenny Bullard, vocalist Sal Bova, and drummer Gary Marotta (Archaic Decapitator). And with these new members on board, the band’s music has changed as well.

These changes are reflected in the latest Xenosis album, Paralled Existence, which is set for release on October 1st. It would go too far to say that Xenosis have radically transformed themselves — their backbone is still made of a particularly head-spinning brand of technical death metal. But the changes are nonetheless apparent, with greater roles for progressive-metal excursions and groove. We have a prime example in the song we’re premiering today, “Prophetic Blight“.

 

 

This new track is a fascinating and persistently mind-bending song that brazenly channels cruelty and madness, barbarism and flights of intricate instrumental adventurism.

Anchored by a grisly lurching riff and episodes of spine-slugging groove, the song spins out riotous drum fills, booming and bubbling bass motifs, blaring and screaming chords, start-stop bursts of crazed quivering fretwork, and a rich panoply of soloing that’s eerie, weirdly demented, and maniacally superheated. The song further includes inventive and beguiling prog-metal instrumental digressions, off-kilter rhythmic interplay, and a mix of vicious vocals that veer from heartless roaring to barbed-wire-constricted shrieking.

And on top of all that, those anchor points mentioned above (and other recurring accents) hold the song together and (perhaps unexpectedly) make it catchy, as well as technical and brutal.

Here’s what Xenosis tells us about the song: “Prophetic Blight is a song that definitely showcases how we venture into the more groove side of our sound. It features some of our favorite slower/heavy/chunky riffs on the album, but we still sprinkled in our own proggy-ness to it to keep it congruent with our usual Xenosis sound. Lyrically it is about the Earth manifesting itself as a creature to wipe out humanity with plague, disease, and famine.”

 

 

Paralled Existence as a whole was inspired by influences such as Death, Martyr, Meshuggah, Blotted Science, Obscura, The Faceless, Morbid Angel, Planet X, Dream Theater, and Symphony X.

The macabre and sinister cover art was crafted by Caelan Stokkerman (Soreption, Lorna Shore, Fires In The Distance, etc.), and mixing and mastering was handled by Nick Bellmore at Dexters Lab Studio, in Milford, CT.

The album is available for pre-order now, and in case you need further incentive to pick it up, we’ve included a stream of the album’s first single, “Castrato“, following the links below.

PRE-ORDER:
https://xenosis.bandcamp.com/album/paralleled-existence

SOCIAL MEDIA:
https://www.facebook.com/xenosisband