siLLy puPPy The metal universe continues to evolve and then splinter off into new sub-genera but then these distinct styles often cross-pollinate and a completely new distinct style emerges from the unholy union. There’s power this, symphonic that and then voila symphonic power metal! Well, same thing happened with black and death metal. While early death metal bands were distinguishing themselves from thrash, bands like Sweden’s Dissection were adding the blackened elements of Bathory and Mayhem to their punishing death metal compositions and a new (unofficial) genre was gestated into existence. Even within the blackened death metal scene there are two distinct styles. There’s the fusion where the black metal elements reign supreme and this style is referred to as war metal (also war black metal or bestial black metal) and the other being melodic black death.

Of the most recognizable blackened death metal bands of the melodic variety in the noughts has been Poland’s Behemoth whose distinct tirade of black metal suddenly crossed over into death metal turf starting with its 1999 album “Satanica” and continued rampantly up to 2009’s “Evangelion.” Another distinguished band that has perfectly mastered the Behemoth sound of this era and made it their own is the Vernon, British Columbia based XUL, whose name is a dead give away as to its primary influence is as the moniker is derived from the title which is a track off of Behemoth’s landmark 2005 album “Demigod” which featured the bands most aggressive and technical vital performances of its career before slowly drifting elsewhere due to Nergal’s health problems. XUL is one of those bands that REALLY delivers the goods with its 2012 debut album MALIGNANCE. The album was originally self-released and then found a much more fitting remastered re-release in 2015 on Redefining Darkness Records complete with completely different cover art.

XUL formed in the backwoods of Vernon, British Columbia, Canada in 2008 with the lineup of Marlow Deiter (bass), Lowell Winters (drums), Wallace Huffman (guitar), Bill Ferguson (guitar, vocals) and Levi Meyers (vocals). XUL deliver a no nonsense style of bombastic blackened death metal much like Behemoth dished out on “Demigod” with all the rampaging energetic drive, outstandingly sharp dueling guitars with sizzling uncompromising riffs and melodic squeal laden solos. The bass and drums provide the frenetic rhythm section with a ferocity reserved only for the most ambitious adrenaline seekers making to Possessed’s “Seven Churches” or the albums from Dissection as well as the aforementioned Behemoth era. The vocal rage of Meyers is a dead ringer of Neural at his most blackened and deathly and although the Behemoth comparisons convey a lot of the band’s overarching goal, XUL succeeds and sounding like more than a mere Behemoth clone. The compositions are similarly structured but engage more melodic bursts of rhythmic drive and frequent calming down effects of acoustic guitar segments.

The original 2012 album contained eight tracks but the remastered 2015 re-released offered the bonus track “Venomous Inquisition” which was re-recorded from the demo. All the tracks are monstrous powerhouses with none really standing out over the others. The flow of the album is as debilitating as the best of the old school death metal classics and the musicianship is as good as it gets. The melodic touches keep the tracks accessible but this is some of the most brutal sort of death metal you can experience however the blackened touches definitely give this a raw and underground feel. I’ve experienced both the original album as well as the remastered second coming and the newer one is definitely of a more professional production quality without sounding too polished. For anyone who loves the relentless blackened death metal of Behemoth’s “Demigod” era, then this will be right up your alley. It’s almost like the album they never released and redone by a band in another dimension. Faithful yet not a complete clone. Personally i love this sound. It’s catchy and dramatic for the entire ride.

UMUR "Malignance" is the debut full-length studio album by Canadian blackened death metal act XUL. The album was self-released at a "Name your Price" option on the band´s Bandcamp profile in June 2012.

The music on the album is blackened death metal or death metal infused black metal. The scale really doesn´t tip either way in a manner where I can comfortably call this either death metal or black metal. The important thing here is of course if it works. And I can say with a bit resounding yes, that it does. The combination of death metal and black metal elements truly work to the band´s advantage. High pitched sneering black metal type vocals paired with deep growling vocals work to great effect as do the furious black metal tremolo picking paried with technically well played death metal riffing. The music is raw (and occasionally melodic), very well played (Pretty technical at times), well written and relatively well produced too. This is definitely what I would call a quality release.

The album kicks off with "Battlestorm" and from there seldom looks back. "Winter’s Reign" is the only track that stands out a lot from the others as it´s an instrumental black metal track featuring symphonic styled keyboards. It´s very different from the rest of the album but somehow it doesn´t seem malplaced. Aggression is generally in the high seat on the album but never at the expence of sophisticated songwriting or intriguing details, which make "Malignance" an album that you can come back too again and again and still discover new things on. This is overall a very promising debut album by XUL. I guess it lacks a completely unique and original sound, but less will do and a 4 star (80%) rating is still deserved. Very impressive for an independently released debut album.

Time Signature Hordes of black...

Genre: blackened death metal

Hailing from the dark forests of Vernon Canada, Xul released their debut album "Malignance" last summer (to be honest, I have no idea if there are dark forests near Vernon, but Xul's band photos would certainly seem to indicate that there are). As far as I know, the album has received a lot of praise from fans and critics alike.

Xul operate within the genre of blackened death metal, taking cues from blackened death metal giants like Behemoth, black metal legends like Immortal and Mayhem, as well as death metal demigods like Morbid Angel. They have taken all of these inspirations and combined them into their own artistically highly successful brand of blackened death metal, which features the brutality of death metal and the darkness and evil of black metal. Thus, you get and album the treats you to both the machine-gun bassdrums, guttural vocals, and technically proficient playing associated with death metal and the tense harmonies, tremolo picking, and blazing blastbeats associated with black metal.

This combination in itself is of course already one that has a lot of potential for great things (and plenty of great thing resulting from this combination are found throughout "Malignance"). However, there is another ingredient to the Xul sound, and that is melody. There is actually a lot of melody in their sound - much of which is generated in the harmonies in the riffs (interestingly, this reminds me of one of the demos by the obscure Danish death metal band Cyanotic). The guitar leads are also very melodic, and at the same time pretty impressive and technically advanced (just check out the sweep technique used).

The production is clean and well-defined and characterized by professionalism, as are all aspects of the music itself. And, still, you can actually acquire the album on Bandcamp at a price of your own choice.

Xul's "Malignance" is a huge artistic success and captures what I consider to be the best from both death metal and black metal.