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XANTOTOL
Liber Diabolus: 1991 – 1996
(Kampf Records)
70:00min
When we talk about the early Polish Black Metal scene names like Graveland
and Behemoth immediately
come to mind, acts that would be considered as the forefathers of the Polish
Black Metal (necro)sound. But not many people remember that another
obscure act existed sowing the seeds of evilness and storming near the
Baltic those days (early 90s)... they were called
Xantotol,
originally formed as a two piece act by Mala (yeah, she’s a woman) on
guitars and voice and Venom as drummer, later joined by Siwi on bass. With
this line up the band recorded 2 demo tapes and a cassette from 1991
through 1996, with a very positive response from the underground hordes.
Lately I got a promotional CD from a new record label from Poland called
Kampf Records who released this
compilation CD featuring everything officially recorded by the band: the
“Glory For The Centuries” demo I from 1991, “Cult Of The Black
Pentagram” demo II from 1991 (originally released by
Witching Hour Productions, an underground label ran by the
vocalist of the polish Hermh)
and the self released cassette LP “Thus Spake Zaratustra”. But how we
can describe the Xantotol
sound in a few words? Obscure, raw and very cold Black Metal in the vein
of Samael at their earlier
stages. As we can expect, the sound is beyond this age, so no more words
about it. The release itself is amazing, on deluxe digipack format,
including bio, pics, etc. I don’t
really
know what more to add, because you Black Metal freaks shall love this
collector's item of a true lost cult (as I do). For more details check
out www.kampf.ws
or just write to kampfrec@go2.pl
Rodrigo Jimenez
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XANTOTOL
Thus Spake Zaratustra
(Witching Hour)
36:43min
Some of you can remember the review I did sometime ago about the "Liber
Diabolus: 1991-1996" demo compilation CD from this obscure Polish
act… Well, after that review and the response from that one, the guy of
Witching Hour Productions (the vocalist of HERMH) decided to re-release
the band's only album (originally released on tape) in its full glory on
CD format on an awesome digipack. And thanks to Jacek (a.k.a. Venom,
XANTOTOL’s drummer) I got this dark jewel, fulfilled of obscure
emotions, raw sound, harsh and truly going under the skin vocals (courtesy
of Mistress Mala), what can be immediately connected with the early works
of bands like SAMAEL, VARATHRON, BATHORY and even country mates /
contemporaries like GRAVELAND and BEHEMOTH (please note I’m comparing
only the earlier works from all the bands). So I guess you can get a
clear picture (between all this nebulous darkness hahaha) of the sound of
XANTOTOL, even you can discover that a lot of the current so called
Suicide Black Metal bands sounds quite similar to what XANTOTOL did 15
years ago, so a credit must be given to this underground cult. As I wrote
in the previous CD review, the sound is beyond this age, so any criticism
about it is not acceptable. Finally I want to add that most of the lyrics,
as you can easily notice through the album title, are taken from the book
of F. Nietzsche also some excerpts from “The Book of the Law” by the
Great Beast Himself (a.k.a. Aleister Crowley). A piece you can not miss
in your collection. Contact
www.witchinghour.pl
Rodrigo Jiménez
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XASTHUR
Telepathic With The Deceased
(Moribund Records)
57:36min
US Black Metal one-man project XASTHUR is certainly an act that polarizes
people into utter worshippers and loathers, whereas I am somehow caught
in between. The haunting, eerie moods and gloomy yet hateful
depressiveness is capturing, unique and addictive, but the sterility
caused by the drum computer and the lengthiness of most songs create a
high amount of monotony that I find hard to endure over almost 60 minutes.
The sole creator Malefic has a good hand for weaving together forlorn
keyboard sounds, harsh guitars and tormented screams into a perpetual
maelstrom that either swallows the awestruck listener or leaves him
uncomprehensing and bored. "Telepathic With The Deceased" is
XASTHUR's 6th full-length (hope I counted correctly) and predecessor to
the "band's" newest effort "To Violate The Obvious"
(Total Holocaust Rex) and it offers exactly what fans of XASTHUR like to
hear and I tried to describe above. It's not songs that count here, but
moments in an seemingly neverending dark stream of raw Black Metal
founded originally on a kind of MÜTILATION, BURZUM-like fundament but
with good load of individuality and inventiveness. Fans may blindly buy
this, others might try a visit of www.moribundcult.com
first and check out some MP3's and further infos... On sale
here .
Stefan Franke
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XASTHUR
Suicide In Dark Serenity
(Undercover Records)
44:10min
If you are into eerie, cold, dark and atmospheric suicide Black Metal you
will probably have crossed ways with US one-man-band XASTHUR. Darker than
SHINING, more ghostlike than BURZUM the band got quite a name within the
underground. Having released their last albums on Southernlord Records
and contributing some vocals on the last European show of SUNN0))) might
have helped as well spreading the unholy name. Now this CD suprisingly is
released on Germany's Undercover Records. On the label's website it
states that the CD has previously been released (only on limited vinyl)
as a MLP through Bestial Onslaught Records in 2003 - so if you are not
into the good old LP format is this your chance. The songs itself are
from the the years 2001 to 2002. To the five original songs (including
one intro / instrumental) they added the titletrack as a rehearsal
recording from the "Nocturnal Poisoning" session in its
original 17 min version, remixed in 2004. Unfortunately the cover of the
CD turned out a lot darker than the MLP cover but somehow it still fits.
The music itself is in the typical slow and atmospheric, yet grim XASTHUR
vein - no real difference to their previous works. Still, although I
think there is a little hype going on about this band, I like them (or
better him) for staying true to his sound and creating absolutely no
childish, polished Black Metal junk of which too much is flying aroung
these days. Yet I am not sure If I would buy this record (at least not if
it is sold for the price of a regular CD!) but if you don't own anything
of XASTHUR yet it might be a good introduction. But if you have the
chance grab their classic full-length "Telepathic With The
Deceased", the aforementioned "Nocturnal Poisoning" or
"To Violate The Obvious" instead and get swallowed by true dark
songs from the Spirit World. http://xasthur.mercurous.net,
www.undercover-records.de
Tim Klöcker
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XIV DARK CENTURIES
Skithingi
(Perverted Taste)
46:54min
I was never fanatic about that “heathen” thing from proud Thuringia, and it was due to one reason:
the music! Of course, a sentence like heathen Black Metal was ever a paradoxum per excellence to me, too. But the music:
most of the time it was nothing but ordinary lala, more than often sounding too nice, without any evil or dark
atmosphere! The playing of the guitars was more like a usual drinking instrumental done by happy and fat Vikings; the voices worse than of any drunken bard. And even if you won’t believe me, in
the case of XIV DARK CENTURIES it is the same. Your praised band simply
doesn't impress me. It's just boring to me, like 99,99 % of all other bands coming from that genre. All the guys that
think drinking honey-wine might be Metal and makes them coming closer to their ancient forefathers: this is music for you, you will like it and you can buy it. For all the ones that think
Metal has to be dark: try to escape the hype. www.pervertedtaste.de
Hurricane
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X-SHOT
X-Shot
(self-financed)
61:50min
As far as I know, this is the first release of this North German band.
After a short intro the opener ‘K.A.T.P.’ starts out pretty thrashy
and turns into a deadly groover. Unfortunately, like on a few more songs
(e. g. ‘Clown’ or ‘Feel The Pain’), the chorus gets a little on
my nerves: too repetitive. The tempo of this record may roughly described
as a mix of Thrash with lots of groove that reminds me quite a bit of (mostly
early) 90s Hardcore. Some 90s METALLICA, too. But there is a calm,
melodic side to X-SHOT as well, making the record sound pretty
well-balanced. And, yes, there is some truth about the term “Nu
Metal” as well but it’s not
that bad... Doesn’t really fit into my drawers. Cool drummer,
rather simple but effective instrumentation and I like the singer’s
voice. Unfortunately, he’s the most obvious point of weakness as well
because at times his vocal lines still sound utterly amateur-like and his
pronunciation of English is far from being perfect as well: lots of work
ahead! One of the weakest song (musically as well) – ‘Soldier’ –
even starts with the lyrics from MOTÖRHEAD’s ‘1916’. Ouch! And the
‘Road-Song’ simply sucks! Still, there is a lot of good stuff around,
like one of my faves at the time: ‘F.H.K.’ or the cool rocker ‘King
Me’, so use the skip button. But what happened to the sound on that
song? Sounds strange. Apart from that, the production is solid but
swallows the guitar a little. Too much bass. So I’d say there’s still
a lot of work ahead for X-SHOT and singer Felix in particular but there
is quite some potential as well. Let’s wait for the next effort! www.x-shot1.com
Ramon Claassen
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