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.