Bloodtide Rising

My only tastes of the so called "symphonic death metal" up until this point were the critically acclaimed Italian masters Fleshgod Apocalypse and the overly mediocre project from Canada Ex Deo. Xael from North Carolina share many similarities - good and bad - with both of the above-mentioned artists. Their melodic approach to death metal is combined with a variety of orchestrations and synths and has an almost theatrical essence.

What I do not particularly enjoy in this style of extreme heavy metal is the unnecessary dependence on electronic instruments and orchestrations in order to make the music more atmospheric and add a grandiose "epic" feeling. Do not get me wrong I love additions of that nature and in this record those harmonic expressions are performed exceptionally. However, just like Fleshgod Apocalypse in their latter part of their career, the band falls into the trap of overlaying and overshadowing their songs' heaviness for this atmospheric aesthetic. Which is a shame because the riffs here are really great. Taking influence from technical death metal acts such as later Death or even Nile the guitarists manage to write guitar parts of aggressive nature with lots of melody. Even the more deathcore like chugs add to the gut wrenching attack of the compositions. Should those incredible ideas not have been hidden under tons of violins, cellos and keyboards the final result could be much much better- for I, frankly, believe that only when the songs progress into some acoustic medleys the blending is more smooth and feels less uncanny.

Orchestras and string instruments require a damn near perfect production and fortunately Xael manage to deliver here. All of the instruments are produced meticulously and even those who do not get their just desserts - e.g. the guitars and the bass - seem to have tons of work put into them. Moreover the vocals - both the death metal growls and the choir - receive a really great treatment which enhances their already amazing performance. The growls may be oriented towards more poor "-core" styles in some of the tracks but even then Nassaru's singing is captivating and along with the clean parts contributes to the overall atmosphere.

While following the symphonic path proved to be a good decision for the group, as they possess both the inspiration and the competence to exceed the clichés of the genre and write great music. However their sort of fixation with the classical instruments has its toll for there is this constant feeling I get; that the tracks need just a little bit of extra heaviness and punchiness.

60/100