By: Zak McCune
Album
Type: EP
Date
Released: 17/04/2020
Label: Glossolalia
Records
“Mytharc” CS//DD track listing:
1. A Flickering Eternity
2. Mytharc
3. Shades of Illusion
4. Wraith Chamber
5. Repression Regime
The
Review:
What is a Xenoglyph?
The year is 2020. One of the most
powerful nations in all human history has elected a reality TV show host with a
petty and fragile, egomaniacal demeanor for their President and leader. Polar
ice caps, integral to maintaining a comfortable ecosystem for human life to
survive, are drastically melting as ice sheets which have not defrosted for
some 2.6 million years are, now, cool liquid. Nuclear warheads, capable of
ending all life on planet earth some 46 thousand times over, are pointed in
every direction, and whose red activation buttons are under the thumb of power-hungry
morons. A new, wildly infectious disease has spread over the face of the earth.
Under governmental decree, people are forced inside, cutting off contact with
others including their own family. Businesses have been forced to shut.
Travel has grinded to a halt. And dominos of the earth’s economy are colliding,
falling one after the other, leaving a supermega dust cloud of uncertainty,
poverty and fear.
Enter a transmission - nay - an entity
from “Super-Earth”, GJ 357 d, taking the shape of a, self-described,
psychedelic black metal album whose members’ identities are as equally shrouded
as their origins are unknown. Its name? “Mytharc”.
The band? Xenoglyph.
All bullshit theatrics and cosmic
mysterium aside, “Mytharc” is a massive slab of traditional black
metal that possesses continuous movement. From start to finish the
all-too-familiar cadence of stiff snare hits striking in between iced-out
metronomic hi-hat variations, with continuous double bass drumming, goad the
frigid guitar leads while evil breathy screams are buried somewhere toward the
back of the mix. The album has an excellent atmosphere. Never pushing too far
but never not giving enough, the focus of Xenoglyph is clear.
“Mytharc” is more than the sum of its parts. Truly, it is not
the type of album that has big singular moments nor does it seem interested in
bringing the listener to any sort of grand point. Rather, “Mytharc” is presented like one excellent ink-soaked swath of ethereal
dread. As any fan of the biggens like Immortal
or Arckanum or Dark Funeral or even
the ignoble Emperor would come to expect, “Mytharc” builds large amounts of catharsis, not from crescendonic moments,
but gradually over longer stretches of melodic time. These weird alien dudes
from GJ 357 d seem more interested in leaving you with a general presence than
they are trying to convey a specific intent, the likes of which you may get
from a long, mapped out journey with a final destination. Perhaps, they are
trying to show us earthlings that the chaos we all feel in the time of their
visit is less exceptional and something even more terrifying: constant.
“Mytharc”
is available HERE
Band info: facebook
