Xenomorph, from Leiden in the west of the Netherlands, has been in existence since 1993. In those twelve years, they released a couple of items of which the 2001 album “Baneful Stealth Desire” is the most noteworthy. It received some great reviews and Xenomorph toured quite a lot as a result of this. After that, it became a bit quit in the Xenomorph camp.

But not anymore: Under Her Black Wings, a sub-label of the stoner rock label Freebird Records will release “Necrophilia Mon Amour” this autumn. On “Necrophilia Mon Amour” (great title by the way) they present us a mixture of death, black and thrash metal which is quite powerful. The album was two years in the making due to censorship problems (in the Netherlands?) and ofcourse the demise of their former label System Shock

The ten tracks are very versatile and show a degree of playing and songwriting which is beyond doubt equal to the current top-bands in the Netherlands.
The fundament for Xenomorph’s sound is definitely death metal. It you take this metaphor further one could say that the walls and roof are made of thrash metal, and black metal is cement, holding all elements together and fusing it to a whole building.

The song titles only give as much as a hint of the actual topics which are dealt with in the lyrics, due to the absence of a lyrics sheet but titles like “Hang ‘Em High On Holocaust Stakes Of Frozen Methane”, “In Flagrante Delicto” and “Neon Black Stronghold” surely tickles the imagination.

I don’t know if the band would approve of this but the comparison with The Monolith Deathcult peeps into my mind when listening to “Necrophilia Mon Amour”. Not so much because of the musical similarities but because of the atmosphere and the songtitles. Both bands very frequently use different grunts, growls and screams, they both use spoken word parts in their songs and even some guitar solo’s sound alike.
The song which reminds me the most of TMDC and in fact is my personal favourite is “Magnificat, My Soul Doth Magnify The Lord”, featuring all aforementioned elements. Especially the end is addictive, the title is chunted (grunted chanted) dozens of times without becoming boring for a second, due to the intriguing guitars in the background.

Being the only band on this young record label is both an advantage and a disadvantage. I hope they will find the right channels to promote this excellent album but they are ofcourse top-priority for UHBW Records. Despite the fact that this album was two years in the making is was worth the wait and I urge you to get it a.s.a.p.