It warms the heart to see that the allure of early At the Gates remains strong among the younger metal generation. England’s Xenith, a quartet made up of 20-somethings,1 cite early At the Gates and Opeth as inspirations for their debut album, To No Avail. While the Opeth inspiration isn’t nearly so obvious, clearly these guys have love for the thrashy melodeath that At the Gates play. It’s easy to see why young, hungry, passionate metal musicians would love them. Their relentless melodicism, playful riffs, and in-your-face vocals sound liberating for those who want to write catchy music with an edge rather than commercially-produced radio rock. With one EP under their belts in early 2025, Xenith quickly set to work expanding their repertoire with To No Avail, in the hopes they haven’t yet reached the zenith of their career.
There’s no doubting the At the Gates inspiration, as Xenith play a tenaciously melodic form of death metal that races forth with spunk and zip. Opener “Take Me Back Where I Belong” starts off with the sort of instrumental strumming that introduces In Flames’s “Moonshield” and Metallica’s “Fight Fire with Fire” and then dives into the exciting riffs and plucky energy played in those long-ago classics. Follow-up “Alone” carries the At the Gates mantle, starting off aggressively and serving as a much more tightly written and catchy composition. Vocalist Billy Hourigan has much in common with Bloodletter’s vocalist, Peter Carparelli—the punky shout of someone carrying a chip on his shoulder. It’s a confident, winning performance that brings a distinct personality to Xenith’s sound. Their songwriting culminates in the apex tune, “Arteries,” a mighty demonstration of their melodic riffcrafting, progressive tendencies, and creative instrumentals. The song packs a wallop and is alone worth the price of admission.
While I struggle to hear the Opeth influence, Xenith has a surprisingly progressive streak stemming from their tendency to go in instrumentally playful directions. This is evident on the opener, where they perhaps stick to the instrumental intro a touch too long, and even return to it later on. Xenith fill lengthy portions of many of their tracks with instrumental-only segments, showing off some fancy fretwork as well as solos on the likes of “Incite the Tragedy.” Even the closing minutes of “Arteries” go into instrumental mode, opting for some moody and creative drumming and tremolos before concluding on the highs of its melodic riffs. It’s clear these guys are bursting with ideas, and they’re able to successfully build them within songs without sacrificing coherence. In fact, it creates more rewarding repeat spins as you catch more nuances with each listen.
A few tunes step outside the melodeath box with mixed results. The most successful is “The Weight to Pretend,” which includes a distortion and lightness on the guitars that has an almost poppy, shoegaze character. It still has plenty of melody, but a distinctly different, almost happier vibe that makes for an interesting change of pace. The follow-up and finale, “Out of Contempt,” keeps some of this shoegaze character, yet what it plays is just not as interesting. Sure, there are some good riffs in the fold, but it just carries on too long at six minutes. The one track that doesn’t work is the bruising, awkward “Bludgeoned.” It nearly kills the record’s momentum following the fantastic “Alone” and lacks the hooks Xenith has in droves elsewhere. While 47 minutes is a decent length for what these guys do, trimming this song plus at least some of the last would give To No Avail a massive boost in energy and cohesion.
Those small issues aside, Xenith have proven a very fun and worthy addition to the melodeath canon. To No Avail is a very promising debut that hopefully foretells good things for these youths. These songs demonstrate impressive musicianship and songwriting as well as a willingness to do some things outside of the box. With a little more consistency combined with their knack for experimentation, the next album these guys record could be something great.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Released
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: August 28th, 2026
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