Xerath – II (2011)

The bastard children of John Williams and Meshuggah are back with their aptly titled second release “II”. After delivering one of the most interesting and different sounding releases of 2009, the band’s sound is as epic as before with 10 monumental compositions and around 56 minutes of music.

Immediately after the enthralling opening track “United to Defy”, the band quickly falls into the one-trick-pony category. Their sound in this release is indeed very epic and the massive orchestral arrangements with the groove elements is still as impressive as before, but it feels too much like their last release.

With “God of the Frontlines” and “Reform Part III”, we get tracks that feel like very well structured compositions with some dude shouting/growling in the background. The orchestrations, guitars, and drums are excellent but the vocals sound a bit off in our opinion and after the 3rd song we got annoyed by them.

On “The Call to Arms”, we get a little breather with the great clean vocals, and the music feels a bit less monotonous, but the approach is basically the same: have massive arrangements on top of (almost) the same guitar riffs and drumming sections, and throw in the dude’s screaming into the mix. Most of the remaining songs follow the same approach, just with different orchestral arrangements and some changes in the guitar rhythms.

Don’t get us wrong, the album is very good and brilliantly sounding, but the overall concept is not as effective as the first time around. The overlying orchestral arrangements are top-notch, but the underlying groove elements are not very imaginative and feel abused. We get it that it’s hard to play music like this, but come up with at least some different riffs and rhythmical sections. We recommend “II” to people that really liked the first album, and are not expecting to hear anything revolutionary.

Release: May 3rd, 2011

Country: UK