Xentrix: Bury the Pain (2019)

The U.K. is not really known for thrash metal.  Despite being the birthplace of heavy metal as we know it, for all intents and purposes, and being a major breeding ground for punk, the two major ingredients in thrash metal, there are not a ton of U.K. thrash metal bands who have made a long-lasting impact.  Basically, there is Onslaught, Sabbat, Xentrix, and in recent years, Evile.  Xentrix released a couple of great albums in the heyday of thrash metal, then disappeared for awhile.  But, like many other metal bands, they have re-formed recently with a new singer, and this is their first album since 1996.

I am not overly familiar with the previous Xentrix releases.  I have heard them, but do not own copies of them, though that's not due to not wanting them.  This is a terrific return to the form that made those earlier albums (I am not talking about the 1992 and 1996 releases) so great.  

The music sounds like a combination of Practice What You Preach-era Testament and ...And Justice for All-era Metallica.  It is aggressive thrash metal with staccato riffs and a lot of intensity.  The vocals sound like a gruffer version of James Hetfield's AJFA shout.  Xentrix generally do not waste time doing acoustic interludes or melodic sections.  The band simply goes out and makes as much harsh thrash metal as possible.  It's thrash metal that recalls the spirit and anger of the genre in its early years, before a bunch of bands started incorporating humor and progressive elements.  Some of the highlights of the album include the blistering title track and the punishing "Let the World Burn".  

A lot of thrash metal bands from the genre's golden period have reunited over the last decade or so, but not many have done so as convincingly as Xentrix.  This is a terrific comeback album and cements the band as one of the best thrash metal bands to come from the U.K.  There is not a lot of competition, but still.

Initial Impressions: Gorod: A Perfect Absolution

I will give my standard response to technical death metal first.  I like technical death metal when it sounds organic.  When it sounds like it is not overly sterile and machine-like.  When there is a human element.  I do not like polished technical death that sounds like Pro Tools is as much to credit for the composition as the individual musicians.

Gorod has been around for a little while.  They were previously called Gorgasm but changed their name to avoid confusion with another band with the same name.  Gorod is a French technical death metal band.  France is not real well-known for technical death but a lot of the bands I have heard from the country seem to have their own unique style.  I was anxious to see if Gorod would be the same way.

This is very technical stuff here.  There are a lot of noodling guitar lines and fluctuating song structures.  But at the same time, there is a more organic feel than you will find in groups like Brain Drill.  Gorod do a pretty good job of avoiding the technicality for the sake of technicality that a lot of other groups fall into.  Yes there is a lot of technicality but it is framed around an actual song, not just a series of technical riffs piled on top of each other without any clear direction.

The last half of this album is where things get really interesting.  This is where a lot of the technical riffing and noodling takes on an almost jazzy improvisational style.  In particular the funk-laden opening of "Varangian Paradise".  Another improvement Gorod makes on typical technical death metal is the variation in vocal styles.  Yes there are some harsh, death metal growls and roars but there is a lot of other styles as well, including some clean singing.

Gorod brings a bit more to the table than a lot of technical death metal bands.  That is why I enjoy this album quite a bit.  They enter the realm of Decrepit Birth, Obscura, Psycroptic, and the like as technical death metal bands with some actual personality.