Xenobiotic – Prometheus (Review)

Xenobiotic are a deathcore band from Australia and this is their debut album.

Australians seem to know how to tear out some decent extreme metal, and Prometheus is a very enjoyable listen if you’re partial to modern heavy music. Yep, fans of Aversions Crown, Thy Art Is Murder, Fit for an Autopsy, and the like are advised to check this out.

This slab of gnarliness also features the guitarist of Earth Rot, which is another selling point.

A death metal sensibility underpins Prometheus, resulting in modern deathcore that relies less on genre tropes than many other similar bands seem to do. There are more blast beats than some deathcore variants, and we’re treated to an array of quality riffs that gel with the music well, rather than simply being included to take up space or to provide a slamming breakdown, or whatever. Technical playing is frequently evidenced too, and it’s clear the band are very familiar with what their various instruments are capable of.

We even get a bit of effective melody and some guitar solos here and there – think bands like The Faceless and Fallujah, who are so good at this sort of thing. You can also hear some elements in Xenobiotic’s music that descend into blackened waters in a Behemoth kind of way. Sometimes these various efforts can even start to veer into progressive metal territories, although this statement should be understood in the context of the present musical endeavour, of course – this is crushing deathcore, not some exploratory widdlefest, but it’s heartening to hear a few more reflective and nuanced moments like these included nonetheless.

All of the aspects that the band employ in their work add to the feeling of death metal filtered and distilled into modern deathcore, rather than soulless deathcore that’s trying too hard. It’s rare to be able to call a deathcore release well-rounded, but Prometheus is one such example. Yes, it seems the Xenobiotic know what they’re doing.

Highly recommended.