Xenosis

Sowing The Seeds Of Destruction

Jeff Haddad – Vocals
Ernie DelVecchio – Guitar
Mark Lyon – Guitar
Dave Legenhausen – Bass
Gary Marotta – Drums

1. Arise

This track is an introductory track that is filled with interesting sounds that paints a cosmic yet mysterious image.

2. Rebuild, Renew

The bass kicks things off with the drums, and then the guitars join in. The beginning is great, and then the heavy guitars and drums take the song to a different dimension. The song has a good tempo, and a great rhythm to it. The vocals are a blend of highs and mid ranges with some backing low vocals. I like how they give the song that odd timing feel, but it’s not really an odd time signature, it’s just in how they emphasize certain notes. They give us a bass line again, something that bands don’t do often enough, is let the bassist play a solo line, play a little riff to transition. Right around the 4:21 minute mark the song progresses into a really cool section. The song ends rather well, they keep the groove going to the very end, and showcases the drums ability to roll out to the end.

3. Red Waves

This song begins slowly with a 1, 2, on the drums and some vocals, 3, 4, and more vocals, and then goes into the first verse. They give you a little more of a random attack feel with the metal feel and then a line that can only be to mind songs by Rush. This song is more of a progressive death metal. The 4:10 minute mark begins a really cool section of the song with a nice melodic moment and then some fast guitar strumming and drums. It gives it a really heavier old school death feel, and again the bassist gets a moment to shine.

4. From Flesh To Dirt

Clean vocals and acoustic guitar starts things off, and it is a very pleasant surprise. Vocals are great, guitars are awesome. This song sounds like something that would be on Opeth’s most recent album. Now I will admit, I am not always a fan of clean vocals, but it’s because they are over used, or just don’t fit the application. This is one of the times that they are necessary to the song, and Jeff does a great job going from clean to harsh vocals. They aren’t quite growls they are more of a high range blackened style of vocals. During the chorus, they are some low growling backup vocals. This song is nothing over the top technical, but man is it solid, the way it ends, just a solid repeating rhythm.

5. Turn Over Thy Crown

This is a cool song, it begins with a random rhythm that progresses into a blast beat filled section for the verse. It has a great groove to it, something you can really move to. It takes on a slower rhythm for the next section, and then begins the chorus section. Which also has a cool groove, and also some guitar shredding layered over the vocals. They deliver a nice guitar solo around the 3:17 minute mark. They come out of the briefly to go back into that chorus section, and then the shredding guitar riff appears again. I really like how this song showcases the guitars talents and abilities.

6. Czernobog Part 1

This track starts out with a mean guitar riff and the drums rolling out on the toms as the intro and goes right into the verse, with a driving riff, only to slow it down before going back into the next verse. I like that the guitars are adding little short guitar riffs, and then right around the half way point we get more from the guitars and into a slower bridge. This song really gives you some great guitar work. I am hesitant to say this is my favorite song off the album, only because it is only part 1, and that means part 2 may be just as good if not better.

7. Czernobog part 2

This one begins different than I would have expected, but give you a brutal heavy rhythm and menacing vocals, laid on top of some mean guitar tones. I am digging this section at the one minute mark, the vocals or low and guttural with a solid rhythm that you can move to, it doesn’t show off the guitars but I sense that they will deliver a good shredding, and that time is now. They gift us with a nice 20 second guitar solo, and then out of that we get a short section of the same rhythm. Only to drop a random ten second section that sounds like someone playing on PVC pipe blue man group style. Interesting, necessary probably not but it wasn’t bad, just unexpected. The song ends well and that random section never appears again so, it truly was random.

This album was not bad at all, they do seem to show off their guitarists abilities, which is not bad, it’s better to have guitars that can play then guitars that can only play simple things and don’t have any creativity to play solos. The random section in Czernobog part 2 threw me a little, I don’t think it was necessary but they wanted to put it in the song so there must have been a reason for it. Not bad, this album is better than average, it gets a 7/10 from me. The guitars are great, and the drums can play right along with them, the vocals are solid in all the areas from the highs to the lows and even the clean vocals.

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