Tricks for snappy snare2/3/2024 Angular riffs that flow effortlessly into each other, top-tier drumming, and vocals and bass that both compliment and stand out in equal parts-there’s zero bad music on Xul. There’s so much to love about what this band has going on and while there are things the band could focus on more - like varying tempos, because that works so well for them - Xul is an album that shouldn’t be missed by fans of the genre.īottom Line: There are few bands with the skill that Devangelic has, and that is put to great use on this monster tech death album. Just listen to “Udug-Hul Incantation” to get a glimpse at his flexibility. Vocalist Paolo Chiti has a whole arsenal of tricks and styles at his disposal and plenty of them are put on display across Xul and while there’s not a single metric by which to base a band’s success, having a talented vocalist is never a detriment. Technical death metal in the vein of classic Cryptopsy is a space with some genuine standout bands and over the last few years Devangelic have been clawing their way towards the top of that heap. As with all extreme music, sustaining interest is an important part of album composition and Devangelic and company get this mostly right. That being said, there are times when this album can feel overwhelming and perhaps subtracting a song or two from the tracklist to get this closer to thirty-minutes would have made this album feel more accessible and left the listener wanting a little more. With ten songs and a runtime hovering around 40-minutes, Xul can be a lot to digest, but as noted before this is a balanced album that knows when to let off the gas just enough to make the next throttling be just as exciting as the previous. The production by Stefano Morabito is suffocating and perfect for Devangelic as it feels overwhelming without being simply noisy. There are also nice little touches along with additional sound effects and vocalization-as featured in “Sirius, Draconis, Capricornus”-which round out the atmosphere and give Xul a flavor all its own. While the drums can certainly take center stage on a record like this, the guitar work and bass lines are potent and complimentary. The snare is snappy, double-bass is furious, and the cymbal work is beyond noteworthy. Marco Coghe’s drumming is some of the best in the genre and this album continues this trend with no signs of change. From the opening and overwhelming “Scribes of Xul” it’s obvious that this band is firing on every cylinder and maybe even added some extra cylinders to fire on. Devangelic have been honing their tech death machine for years and that effort shows on Xul.
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