XANTHOCHROID — Blessed He With Boils (review)

XANTHOCHROID — Blessed He With Boils album cover Album · 2012 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
J-Man
Like a sunshine pop band from the slums of Baghdad or an ice cold black metal act from Jamaica, something feels weird about a folk-inspired progressive black metal act hailing from Orange County, California. This style of music has been mostly dominated by the vikings in Scandinavia, but the southern California collective known as Xanthocroid actually has offered one of the genre's best observations with their debut album, 2012's Blessed He With Boils.

Sporting a sound that combines the bombast of Wintersun with the progressiveness of Enslaved and the epic compositions of Emperor, Xanthocroid is very far removed from the likes of Mayhem, Darkthrone, and Burzum, but their music represents a startlingly original approach to black metal. Even with some intense progressive workouts and lengthy detours into acoustic folk territory, Blessed He With Boils feels remarkably coherent thanks to its larger-than-life atmosphere and consistently excellent songwriting. Xanthocroid has made one hell of a statement with their debut, and I will be very curious to hear where these guys go from here. Killer stuff!
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