Deeply focused on their own vision of cosmic horror atmosphere and the terror of dead space Dnipro, Ukraine-based progressive thrash metal trio XENOTRONE have managed an old-school underground inspired debut full-length album which sticks tightly as possible to the strictures of old in its greater patchwork yet takes some bold action in realizing its vision. In fact for most listeners the prospect of ‘Into the Void‘ will be deceptively class, charmingly neon with its outer-spaced aura and hyper-active, aggressive singles but with a patient full listen in skull they’ll quickly notice how far might be too far into the unknown. By focusing so heavily on minimal space ambient pieces, most of which are song length, this take on rhythm and riff obsessed forms of thrash and early death metal feels like an interruption to mayhem in between ominous introspective stares taken on an Eldritch spacecraft’s observation deck.

Xenotrone formed circa 2021 by guitarist/vocalist Kostyantyn Roskosenko and drummer Danylo “Soulreaper” as a step beyond a death metal band they’d been forming prior towards something related to classic thrash metal. Their work was a symptom of a notable Ukrainian thrash metal underground simmering over the last half decade or so, eventually warranting a single song demo tape ’til their first EP (‘Queen of the Night‘, 2023) released. They’d clearly put in some extra time developing their musicianship in order to better represent their major goal of classic late 80’s progressive/technical thrash metal sounds. While it is an interesting relic in the band’s formative steps taken, and to some degree this album falls in that same category, it was more related to the lineage beyond bands like Coroner and Mekong Delta in the late 80’s.

For the sake of offering some sense of the stylistic sea-change arising on this album up front I’m going to have to push out a full wall of name drops to catch the right eyes and ear: The general composition and jazz fusion enhanced voice of this technical death-thrash album has been clearly modeled as a step beyond their adoration of Atheist‘s first two LPs, finding jammed extractions (“I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”) and linearly set performative acrobatics as shows of skill and excitingly paced vignette. This means they’re not as interested in mid-80’s Kreator-style riffing as Aspid and not necessarily as chill/prog-metallic as Scenery or (early) Obliveon though the potential reach in any one direction is certainly there (“Evolution of Soul”.) The best modern analogue is probably Italians Miscreance who are admittedly leagues more on point in their development of this style but coming from a similar locus of invention and interest, a need to bend these classic forms into something different, potentially their own down the line.

We’re in the gears, stick in the machine and hating it as “Tower of Madness” strikes beyond the Florida prog-death assisted vaunt of opener “Evolution of Soul”, showing the trio’s fairly plain prog-thrash sound expanded into a loose, organic form of thrashing death shouted coldly into the void of space. That point of view is key here as playful and stamping as these rhythms will get throughout the album, the opening moments of ‘Into the Void’ are instantly appealing and exactly the type of sound I am readily immersed into. The first impression couldn’t have been better especially in that it promises a fine line between sophistication found in thrash metal’s most severe and tactful corners as well as death metal’s most abstract and organic age of sentience. I wouldn’t say that they’ve dropped the ball beyond that point but’ve taken some odd liberties with breaking up the listening experience in ways that don’t reflect, eh, actually listening to it.

While I was stoked on this album and readied to sing its praises by the mid point of the full listen the addition of not only a ~1 minute intro and a five minute droning ambient piece (“Elysium”) mid-album the experience only gorges itself on more filler as we continue on (re: “Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient”). More specifically the final two songs that extend this record out to ~43 minutes includes a bland cover of Nirvana‘s “Territorial Pissings” and a slightly more interesting space ambient piece which is simple in its arrangement and fades in and out per the effects provided. While it is a trip to some degree and this type of thing is no sin outside of tech-thrash and prog-death headspace it’d have all worked just as well as an EP with shorter ambient pieces. This’d be even less of a complaint if the ambient pieces were more interesting, active, or related to the songs that surround them. There’s no way I’m going to hit repeat on this full spin without cutting those three ~5-7 minute spacers from the tracklist.

Otherwise ‘Into the Void‘ is mostly redeemed and worthy of praise per its mid-section proper where the aforementioned kinetic challenger in “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” props my interest back up beside the faster burner track “Conatus ad Deliciendum”. There is no escaping the fact that half of this album is comprised of minimal space ambient pieces with very little impact… but the half that is actual thrash metal has the right idea, even if still finding its knack among jammed looseness. There’d be no issue with space ambiance in a sci-fi/horror themed album of this sort but it’d have to be less interruptive and fused in with the heavier songs. Xenotrone have put together solid enough ideation of a headspace between tech-thrash and early days progressive death which is worth expanding upon and this is enough to catch the ‘old school’ thrash metal ear up front but most of the appeal of this record is where it sits between obvious influences directing ambition which arrives before compositional skill is completely readied to present. A moderately high recommendation.

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