Band:	Xoth
Album:	Exogalactic
Style:	Technical death metal
Release date:	November 2023

01. Reptilian Bloodsport
02. Manuscript Of Madness
03. Sporecraft Zero
04. The Parasitic Orchestra
05. Saga Of The Blade
06. Reflective Nemesis
07. Battlesphere
08. Map To The Stars, Monument To The Ancients

If you want to experience some highly ferocious technical death/thrash wizardry, then why not join Xoth on their latest Exogalactic voyage?

Xoth are a US-based (arguably) technical death metal band that formed back in 2014. Xoth currently exist as a foursome featuring twin guitarists Woody Adler and Tyler Splurgis, each of whom also perform vocal duties, along with drummer Jeremy Salvo and bassist Ben Bennett. Four years after Interdimensional Invocations, the band have returned with their third full-length release to date, Exogalactic, an album featuring eight tracks spanning just shy of forty minutes. Following up a strong sophomore record, what can be expected from this latest release?

I will start by saying Xoth's genre is a hard one to define; you can listen to Exogalactic forever and a day and still not fully figure out exactly what style the band is delivering, but it's evidently clear that a ferocious combination of technical death, technical thrash and meloblack is driving the album's outrageously technical structure forward. You can undoubtedly hear glimpses of late-era Death through Splurgis and Adler's superb intertwining, ferociously melodic riffs and thrashy shredding leads, Salvo's frenzied drumming, and Bennett's complex bass lines. Along with late Death, you'll also hear traces of progressive thrash almost within the realms of Vektor. Although these are the two bands that spring to my mind most of all, you could easily pick up on several other artists yourself upon further listening, even including glimpses of melodeath along the lines of early In Flames and The Black Dahlia Murder in some moments.

Going deeper into perhaps the most striking element, the guitar work, which I must say is mind-boggling, throughout you'll be succumbed to a non-stop barrage of thrashy riffs and frenetic shredding leads containing vast arrays of melody and technicality, which are forever intertwining. The rhythm section is unrelenting to say the least, so much so that even the most seasoned of metalheads could struggle to keep up in parts. However, let's not take away what goes on in the vocal department, as a combination of semi-harsh (almost sing-along) thrash-like shouts (which tend to present themselves during the chorus) and guttural death growls (the most prominent featured vocal style) complement each other in wonderful fashion throughout each track. As you'll probably already guess by the album and track titles alone, a cosmic sci-fi theme is at the focal point of this album's setting: to be precise, Xoth draw inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft, but would you really expect anything else from an album of this style and calibre?

The opening track "Reptilian Bloodsport" immediately begins with full ferocity, starting off with a strikingly melodic sci-fi thrashy riff; accompanying this riff is a rapid drumming pattern and ferocious bass lines, along with melodeath-style growls. As the song progresses, the aggressive semi-harsh vocals and tremendous melodic leads also begin to emerge, which only add to the track's complex yet exhilarating structure, and this form continues to the very end of the track. The album continues to flow effortlessly in this manner throughout its entire duration; from beginning to end there is never a moment in which the instrumentation's intensity lets off steam. Think Skeletonwitch in terms of how this album relentlessly flows with such ferocity whilst maintaining such high levels of melody and hooks. You may find in terms of variety between each track that there's not all that much difference between them, making this one of those rare cases where it's merely impossible to pick out a single stand-out track. However, as a whole, I believe Exogalactic works as if it's one continuous forty-minute track that should be taken in all at once, with no need for track skipping.

Regardless of what genre/genres you think Exogalactic belongs to, you can't deny this is simply one hell of an all-round performance from these seriously talented group of extreme metal musicians. Due to the album's relentless and energetic flow, the forty-minute running time will be all over before you even know what's hit you. On the other hand though, the running time could also come as a blessing, as the outrageous leads could prove too much to handle if they were to go on for any longer; for the musician's sake too, as I'm pretty much sure if they were to carry on shredding in this manner, they probably wouldn't have had any fingertips left to play with anyway, and the drummer's arms will probably ache to the point of no return as well. If you're looking for some solid breakneck action, provided by exceptional guitar work with just as much ferocity as melody, and don't really care whether it's thrash, death, meloblack, melodeath, or whatever else, then Xoth may provide the answer you're looking for here on Exogalactic.