UMUR
"Empyreal Regimes" is the debut full-length studio album by US, Nebraska, Omaha based death metal act Xenomorph. The album was released through Fleshkoptor Musikkk in 1995. Xenomorph was active in the years 1990 - 1996 and "Empyreal Regimes" is their sole album release. The original version features 7 tracks, and 46:57 minutes long playing time, while later reissues include the material from the 1993 "Subspecies" demo as bonus tracks.
As the alien cover artwork might reveal this is sci-fi themed death metal. There´s little futuristic about he actual music though. This is basically brutal and relatively catchy US death metal with a growling vocalist that sometimes snarls more than he growls. I guess that´s why I´ve read people commenting that this is blackened death metal, which I think is a wrong description. The band are decently playing and even though the tracks aren´t terrible varied the songwriting is effective enough for the genre. However there is an issue with the sound production that prevents "Empyreal Regimes" from scoring real high in my book. The mix is messy and especially the guitar tone/sound makes the music sound murky and blurred. I´m a bit biased here as the raw sound production actually fits the music pretty well. On the other hand I´m slightly annoyed when I can´t figure out what the guitars are playing in some sections of the album.
"Empyreal Regimes" is when all is said and done a pretty solid US death metal release, and it does stand out slightly because of the snarling aggressive vocals, but other than that it is pretty standard for the genre and because of the messy guitar sound I can´t give more than a 3 star (60%) rating.