For quite some time now, technical death metal has been unpredictable for all that its denizens dare to summon from nothingness in order to show us both what they can offer listeners as well as showcasing just how much more the genre has for us to sink our teeth into. The genre has its dips as is the case with every genre, but when something comes around that actually manages to do this sound justice? That’s oftentimes a performance that demands to be experienced. Long having their heads in the game, it’s with their fifth album that Xenosis gives us eight damn good reasons why they’re a name that the genre should undoubtedly respect.

It’s not terribly often that there’s room for mercy in a sound as aggressive and uncompromising as technical death metal, and it certainly does not have a place here throughout all that Xenosis summons from the writhing hellscape that spawned “Hermetic Transmutation”. Even in the brief passages that see Xenosis pull back for a brief display of atmosphere or sonic variety, it’s the entirety of this record that makes you feel as though you’re being assimilated into some monstrosity of metal and flesh cursed to squirm in pain and agony for the rest of your days with the power of Xenosis constantly driving you forward. Eviscerating riffs stacked on top of such a frenetic approach to songwriting that ensures you never know what’s coming next, “Hermetic Transmutation” is the sort of dazzling effort that leaves you as naught but a bloodied mess on the floor by the time the creation comes to a close. It’s oddly satisfying in its somewhat disjointed execution as if Xenosis purposefully sought to put the listener on a completely tilted mindset, so the fatally curious listener is even more susceptible to the magnitude of such terror that this record constantly spews forth. Labyrinthine in nature and always going for the throat, this is a record that Xenosis should be immeasurably proud of. Technical death metal is given extreme justice with all that we’re subjected to in all eight of these tracks without there being so much as a minute that doesn’t deliver the goods in any form whatsoever.

It’s been eleven years since I first came before Xenosis, and while I knew that the act was busy in that time, the magnitude and intensity of “Hermetic Transmutation” is nothing that I could have anticipated in the slightest. A creation that’s downright schizophrenic in nature and execution, the vastness of “Hermetic Transmutation” is nothing to be taken lightly lest the overwhelming might of Xenosis wash over you like a cataclysm the likes of which this genre was made for.

“Hermetic Transmutation” releases on June 5th via Transcending Obscurity Records!

LISTEN to advanced tracks from “Hermetic Transmutation” on Bandcamp here.

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