Band: Xyphos (Canada) Title: A Casual Stroll through the Lunatic Asylum (2012) Genre: Death Metal Freshly formed Canadian no-nonsense Death Metal outfit Xyphos recently self-released a short, two-song single into Metaldom. It’s the second thing they release after formation date, somewhere in 2010. What Comes Before was a four-song EP, released in early 2011. A Casual Stroll through the Lunatic Asylum – which I think is a brilliant title and highly descriptive of the slightly sense-absorbing atmosphere that characterizes the two songs – followed in late January of this year.

The four men from Toronto take the bulk of their inspiration from classic DM bands, including Cannibal Corpse, Immolation, Death, Gorguts and Morbid Angel and the result is something that sounds like a fist in the teeth: brutal, shattering and with complete disregard for feelings and emotions. Fans of the old-school Death Metal sound will definitely find something they like here.

ACSttLA – fuck me if I’m going to spell that out in full every time – spans just over ten minutes, split roughly fifty-fifty over a title song and a song called Structured. One of the interesting elements of this release is the bass. It’s slurry – is it a fretless one? – and has a strange but groovy feel to it. There’s a particular good fit to the pummeling bass drums and in Structured that basis is complemented intelligently with a short guitar solo.

The two songs have their moments, such as described above, but it’s not all wonderful. I’m feeling rather bored with the bulk of the song segments rather quickly, which has to do with the repetitive nature of the main riffage. On the other hand, the ever-rolling bass drums – Decapitated’s Spheres of Madness anyone? – are repetitive as fuck as well, and I’m digging that! Basically the conclusion is that Xyphos do a good piece of Metal but nothing more than that. With a rather raw and unpolished mastering, this should definitely appeal to the sweaty-armpit masses of the early ‘90’s Metalheads – by which I mean absolutely nothing negative.

My Grade: 7/10
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