BLESSED HE WITH BOILS

Xanthochroid take the Immortal route as far as their lyrical concept goes, focusing on epic struggles in fantasy kingdoms, but musically they're as far from traditional black metal as you're likely to get. With multiple genre twists and turns - a bit of acoustic strumming here - a brash progressive metal section in the tradition of Enslaved there - they're certainly able to competently present a diverse range of sounds, though I'm not sure the various sections really hang together convincingly. The album's meandering is reminiscent of the band trying out a bunch of sounds to see how they feel rather than anything more interestingly assembled and directed.

XANTHROCHROID was formed in 2005 in the Orange County, CA city of Lake Forest by Sam Meador (keyboards, acoustic guitar, piano, mandolin, melodeon, autoharp, bass, accordion, Irish flute, orchestrations, vocals), Matthew Earl (drums, percussion, flute, Irish whistle, recorder, mandolin, keyboards, orchestration), Bryan Huizenga (bass), Brent Vallefuoco (guitar) and David Bodenhoefer (guitar) and like many contemporary progressive metal acts has blurred the line between exactly what constitutes a metal act and what does not. First of all if you are wondering what the band name means, it is an anthropological term that refers to a person having fair hair and a pale complexion but beyond this dictionary meaning i have no idea how it relates to this project.

This band is the perfect example of how modern labeling systems fail to keep up with the innovative hybridization of musical genres. Is this black metal? Is this Celtic folk? Progressive rock? Well, all of the above actually. Sometimes simultaneously and sometimes each genre exists in a vacuum. Needless to say that the metal tag is only a partial descriptor as is any other for that matter. There really needs to be a label of eclectic metal or eclectic folk / metal / rock or some other tag to convey that no particular genre dominates however for some reason metal's mighty bombastic heft seems to dominate in that regard but whatever. Let's just call this highly innovative music that samples from many other bands and weaves all the influences into a tapestry of innovation that ultimately gets titled BLESSED HE WITH BOILS which is the debut album by XANTHROCHROID.

This is epic cinematic material going on on BLESSED HE WITH BOILS. The opening track 'Aquatic Deathgate Existence' sounds like some sort of Pagan ritual acoustic Celtic instrumentation with an atmospheric etherial spectral presence and haunting choral vocals. The track sounds more like a darkwave modern classical piece that Dead Can Dance would release but beginning with the title track XANTHROCHROID jumps into extreme metal territory but this isn't ordinary metal by any means. The sounds straddle somewhere between the symphonic black metal of Emperor or Ihsahn but with a progressive time signature frenzy that is more like a sped up version of Opeth but to my ears sounds more like the jittery freneticism of Deathspell Omega at least as far as the unorthodox avant-garde chord progressions are concerned. The alternating growly / raspy / clean vocal style also sounds a lot like Enslaved's more progressive works. Add a few liturgical chants and you got an eclectic mix here.

As well as the angularity of the black metal works the band totally drifts off into progressive folk on tracks like 'Winter's End' which eschew any metal leanings whatsoever and truly finds this band crossing boundaries without any hesitation and therefore the only connecting thread of continuity of BLESSED HE WITH BOILS is the focus on the melodic developments which are consistent from beginning to end albeit with oddball progressive time signatures but not so avant-garde that you can't follow them upon a single listen. There was a lot of effort placed into this album to keep the musical flow diverse and ever changing which are the characteristics that interest me the most in music and is a result of the various band members contributing different levels of experience to the musical whole which adds a democratic sort of vibe to the album's run without it feeling disjointed or farfetched. The musicianship is quite competent with special kudos to the percussive drive of Matthew Earl but all the musicians step up when called.

BLESSED HE WITH BOILS offers an entire spectrum of progressive rock / metal / folk leanings with extraordinarily bombastic metal in contrast with the lush purity of folk and everything in between. Certain passages are easily digestible and fall well outside of the parameter of progressive anything but then there are moments such as on 'Long Live Our Lifeless King' where the Ihsahn progressive metal madness kicks in and avant-garde jittery time signature deviations pummel the senses yet carry a melodic underpinning that is impossible to fall under its spell. While XANTHROCHROID does tend to borrow more than create on BLESSED HE WITH BOILS, i cannot deny that this isn't a very interesting album that has an impeccable flow from beginning to end. Derivative in many ways for sure but exceptionally enjoyable nonetheless.