Xasthur's new record is weird. At first listen I'd say it holds more promise than Defective Epitaph, while still sounding rather similar to that. There's an abundance of influence from Elysian Blaze, which make up the best parts of the album. Of course, this just makes me want to listen to Elysian Blaze. Song structures seem vague and interludes come and go. Very loose sounding, certainly aided in that regard by the absence of the drum program, which can't help but make a band sound rigid at times. Gone are the more traditional keyboard based interludes and intros of previous works. Vocals tend towards spoken, whispered, or chanted parts rather than his typical screams. I get the sense Malefic is pushing himself to do different things. There's often the perception that all Xasthur albums are the same, but the last two have taken quite a turn in a different direction, just not always in the smoothest fashion. I kind of see Xasthur having three periods, and at the end of each is when he tends to master that approach. The Funeral of Being was first to really find a unique voice, with the disturbing atmosphere that really gave off rot and decay without ever obscuring the melodies. Subliminal Genocide was the last of the middle era, and it easily exceeded the past few works in terms of aesthetics and quality. I don't think all the kinks have been worked out in this newer style just yet. It's a big shift to go from that wall of sound mix in the earlier works to such a deliberately sparse one currently.
