Xenith Track By Track Rundown of To No Avail

Xenith Track By Track Rundown of To No Avail

XENITH continue to build momentum with the release of their new single and video, Incite The Tragedy, which are both out now. The track is the latest to be lifted from the band’s forthcoming debut album, To No Avail, due for release on Friday. With this in mind, we caught up with the band and asked them for this exclusive track by track breakdown of the album:

Take Me Back Where I Belong
“Take Me Back Where I Belong” opens the album by sampling everything yet to come. It is our most winding and progressive composition, encapsulating the sadness, anger and hope that fuels the following record. As one of the earliest songs written for the album, this felt like the start of us truly finding our voice.

Alone
We wanted a straight-to-the-point banger after the album opener so on “Alone”, we drew heavily from the 90s Swedish melodic death metal scene, particularly At the Gates and In Flames. Channelling these Gothenburg bands felt like the most logical answer to create a personal, yet riff fuelled hard hitter.

Bludgeoned
“Bludgeoned” is one of the most relentless tracks on the album with a focus on unbridled aggression and no-nonsense riffs. We took this song as an opportunity to refine our modern metal vocabulary whilst retaining our old-school sensibilities with more manic shred guitar sections. This has become a staple of our live show already.

Incite The Tragedy
“Incite The Tragedy” acts as a companion piece to the previous track, transitioning smoothly with a clean waltz section before launching into a full melodic death assault. This track is heavily inspired by the songwriting of Opeth, exploring different dynamic peaks and valleys throughout.

No Time To Waste
For “No Time To Waste”, we really wanted to lean into our more anthemic, traditional metal influences to close off the first half of the album with impact. The track is centred around feelings of confusion and disarray so naturally this had to be one of our most technical songs to date.

Descending
We wanted to keep the traditional album format of having a clear side A and B, so we wrote “Descending” as an interlude to introduce the second half of the record. We drew heavily from artists such as Tribulation to set a more emotional tone for the back end of the album.

Killer Instinct
“Killer Instinct” is the first full song of side B and is easily our heaviest track. We wanted to see how far we could push our sound whilst keeping to our melodic roots, leading to incorporation of black metal, hardcore and post-punk to create a more oppressive and tense atmosphere.

Arteries
On “Arteries” we wanted to explore the depressive aspects of our sound in a more unorthodox manner, leading to the incorporation of slide guitar to create a sombre, cowboy-Esque vibe. These fun melodic elements are incredibly important to us in making even the bleaker songs an enjoyable listen.

The Weight To Pretend
“The Weight To Pretend” is the most personal song on the album for us. We wanted to keep the track as authentic as possible, so we opted for a more stripped-down black metal vibe and kept a lot of the original demo recordings for the final release.

Out Of Contempt

“Out of Contempt” was the first song written for the album. We were heavily influenced by Queen and wanted to mix their massive guitar harmonies with some harder hitting riffs. The title came from Jamo [bassist] joking we were “out of content” due to it being the final track.”

For more on the band, see :
https://linktr.ee/xenithband
https://www.facebook.com/XenithBand
https://www.tiktok.com/@xenith_band
https://www.instagram.com/Xenithband
https://www.youtube.com/@XenithBand
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6JlB8LJTRgdQTgOtO8XVb8

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