Xael are a band form North Carolina that has had music reviewed before in this zine and on this recording plays a progressive and symphonic mixture of black and death metal and this is a review of their 2021 album "Bloodtide Rising" which was released by Pavement Music.
Symphonic sounding keyboards start off the album and also mixes in with the heavier sections of the music at times. Tribal style percussion can also be heard briefly along with some songs also adding in a small amount of operatic choirs while the solos and leads are also done in a very melodic style when they are utilized.
When the music speeds up a great amount of brutal blast beats can be heard while death metal growls are also a very huge part of the recording. Melodies are also added into some of the guitar riffing along with the songs also adding in a decent mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts.
Melodic vocals can also be heard in some parts of the recording along with a few tracks also adding in classical guitars. At times the music also gets very progressive and technical sounding as well as some black metal screams also being added in certain sections of the recording, as the album progresses a brief use of stringed instruments, female vocals, clean playing and spoken word parts can also be heard. The production sounds very professional while the lyrics cover science fiction themes.
In my opinion this is another great sounding recording from Xael and if you are a fan of symphonic and progressive black and death metal, you should check out this album. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "SuunB Rai Aru (Passion Begats Ruin)" "Srai-The Demon of Erring" "Bloodtide Rising" and "The Odium And The Contrition". 8 out of 10.
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