Ukrainian progressive thrash/death metal in the vein of Death, Watchtower, Mekong Delta and Atheist? Of course! The world of technical extreme metal shall feel fuller and richer with the release of Xenotrone’s debut album. “Into The Void” comes as a chest of wonders, since it has so many different, fresh and nice things/elements to present. The band from Dnipro will take you by surprise with its own wonderful, brilliant point of view and makes with ease and confidence its smart, well-thought-out moves inside the genre – and the guys go beyond the expectations, as they have even kraut rock/electronic rock/ambient instrumentals, which create a unique atmosphere of cosmic horror! So, we can say that, in this weird but beautiful album, Death of the “Individual Thought Patterns” album – era meets Klaus Schulze of “Irrlicht”! Once you’ve delved into the void of this album, you will get lost in a well-structured abyss of intricate extreme metal music with complex arrangements, strange tempo changes and shifts, riffs, themes and solos. Xenotrone knows how to build a prog thrash/death metal monument, which will leave you breathless – both chaotic and systematic, “Into the Void” is an album that the fans of technical metal will appreciate. Kelly Schaefer (Atheist) guests in a song of the album (“Stone Cross”), completing the puzzle, and Xenotrone are also covering Nirvana (“Territorial Pissings”) … I enjoyed every second of this magnificent release, especially the instrumental cosmic rock ingredients, which make this work so different from the others! Shall we say that kraut thrash/death metal is born?! Yes, it was about time!
♦ 8/10
Dimitris Zacharopoulos
