Review Summary: The lack of originality on III makes it sound like a long tread through the many faces of metal without ever presenting a unique face of its own.
It’s unfortunate when you find a band with all the right ingredients to make superb music, but despite how much potential they have on paper, the finished product simply fails to reach the mark.
Xerath are currently in this dilemma on their third outing, aptly titled
III. This UK extreme metal quartet are influenced by some of the greatest modern metal acts, including but not limited to the controlled insanity of
Strapping Young Lad and the groovy, rarely predictable metal legends
Meshuggah. The band even takes influence from music in popular film scores. Xerath’s sound can be described as massive, dense, and to an extent, “epic,” due to their emphasis on symphonic elements combined with their amalgamated death metal approach (think
Mechina with less industrial and more strings). Sounds like all the ingredients needed for an incredible metal album and then some. The problem Xerath have is making their music standout from their overtly noticeable influences. This lack of originality on their part leaves
III sounding like nothing more than a long tread through the many faces of metal without ever presenting a unique face of its own.
The aforementioned influences are immediately heard from the first track. Vocalist Richard Thomson does his best
Devin Townsend impression throughout the entirety of
III. Some vocal melodies sound like they were taken straight out of SYL’s critically acclaimed
City, which is indeed an admirable feat, yet it comes across as completely unauthentic. Instrumentally, it’s difficult to identify one track from another because the polyrhythmic-symphonic-death-metal formula is used with such little variation throughout. None of the riffs are particularly noteworthy since the symphonic aspect takes up most of the spotlight. The orchestral dominance is certainly enjoyable in small doses, such as in closer ‘Veil Pt. 2’, where the melodic strings dance solemnly over the crushing guitars beneath, closing the album out with a welcome subtlety absent from the rest of the album. Additionally, the flat production does the wall-of-sound approach little favors.
III is plagued by the constant clash between the guitars and strings and never knowing which one should be the focus at any given time, resulting in a muddy, forgettable hodgepodge of potentially great, half-realized ideas.
Xerath are at their best when they’re at their most honest. ‘Autonomous’ is an obvious head-banger, with the strings and guitars hitting accents in unison while Thomson goes crazy over it all. It’s unoriginal, sure, but it’s a fun ride while it lasts. This sense of honesty bleeds into the next track, ‘Bleed This Body Clean’, where the chugging guitars and orchestral swells have their own distinct roles. This allows the band to breathe for once, each voice having an identifiable purpose working in harmony with one other. Other highlights include the highly syncopated ‘Sentinel’ and the bombastic opener ‘I Hold Dominion’. Alternatively, Xerath are at their worst when they take themselves too seriously. A majority of the tracks can hardly be considered bad by any means, because there’s nothing inherently wrong with what Xerath are trying to achieve here. The problem therein is the constant sensation of “been there, heard that,” with no sense of excitement or originality to hold your attention for the album’s taxing 69-minute runtime.
Unfortunately, even when Xerath play to their strengths, the fact that their strengths rely solely on influences from other artists makes even the best moments on
III hard to appreciate. It ultimately comes down to a case of “if I want to listen to x-band, I’ll listen to x-band,” which happens to be a perfectly valid argument. On
III, Xerath prove that sometimes the end result isn’t quite as promising as the sum of its parts may lead you to believe.
