Sxuperion - Through Cosmic Corridors review
| Band: | Sxuperion |
| Album: | Through Cosmic Corridors |
| Style: | Atmospheric death metal |
| Release date: | October 01, 2014 |
| A review by: | Auntie Sahar |
01. Purulent Spiritual Interstellar Void
02. Through Cosmic Corridors
03. Advanced Matter Drive For Ecclesiastical Dust
04. Teller Control Panel
05. Denied Canonical Delivery [feat. William]
06. Virulent Arrival Of Demonic Hyper-Space Denomination
07. A World Out Of Time
08. Beyond The Event Horizon
The death metal genre has, quite thankfully, been seeing a notable spike in creativity in recent years. With the likes of Tribulation, Morbus Chron, and even Horrendous this year, a good number of bands seem to now be hell bent on updating the old school sound with their own original twists. Naturally, being the intense fan I am for solo work, I asked myself what the one man response to this growing trend would be. If you were wondering as well, question no longer, for Sxuperion is your answer.
Sxuperion revolves solely around its eponymous mastermind, "Lord Sxuperion." The project has seen a few demos and EPs over the past few years, but only now has that energy been channeled into a full length album, Through Cosmic Corridors. I kid you not when I say that the music here almost sounds as if Darkspace have gone death metal. Cosmically themed, a heavy synth/keyboard sound runs throughout, and some tracks, such as "A World Out Of Time" and "Beyond The Event Horizon" are purely instrumental, providing a nice change of pace from the death metal domination of the album if one happens to be looking for something a bit more relaxing.
Nonetheless, don't let that statement fool you. Through Cosmic Corridors is a metal album first and foremost, and a thundering, pounding sound takes precedence. The combination of excellent drumming and at times surprisingly catchy guitar riffs makes for some pretty headbanging music, and the guitar leads, when they do pop up, take a very psychedelic sort of approach, following along the spacey vibes at work here and sticking to that minimalist, "less is more" sort of style (see the title track especially). The vocals of Lord Sxuperion are especially delicious. Deep and vicious, they conjure thoughts of some of death metal's more lower-ranged vocalists, such as Karl Sanders, or even Chris Barnes, and serve the perfect accompaniment to those pummeling riffs that just hammer you into star dust.
There haven't been many (read that last word again) death metal albums this year that've left me overly impressed, but Sxuperion's debut is definitely cream of the crop, blowing many of the rest of them completely out of the water. Retaining the death metal sound a lot of us know and love, but with enough atmosphere and distinction of personality to not come across as too stale or redundant, Through Cosmic Corridors is, simply put, a fucking monster. Keep an eye out for this guy and any subsequent work he does, because he's going places with his sound.
Enter the cosmic corridors.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 10 |
| Originality: | 9 |
| Production: | 9 |
Written by Auntie Sahar | 10.12.2014
Comments
Comments: 25
Visited by: 244 users
| Zap Posts: 3577  |
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989  |
Written by Zap on 10.12.2014 at 17:39 I think it's a pretty fair assessment, really great composition going on here
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| Alex F Posts: 3519  |
I listened to it and was very impressed. Definitely something along the lines of "Darkspace death metal". Nice find and nice review, Che!
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| V01d Posts: 84  |
Written by Zap on 10.12.2014 at 17:39 This. Definitely going to check this out. Awesome review.
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| mz Posts: 4824  |
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| !J.O.O.E.! Account deleted |
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989 |
Written by [user id=4365] on 10.12.2014 at 19:03 Yeah, I might've gone a little too high here with scoring here, but I do think it's fair to say this is at least 8-9 material. The artwork looks more esoteric/magic-y than spacey to me, and I wish there were more of those psychy guitar leads. Some room for improvement definitely, but I wouldn't really say by that big a margin.
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| Zap Posts: 3577 |
Listened to some songs, and I agree with Joe; it feels unrefined. I think there's lots of room for improvement. As you said, more of those psychy guitar leads would be great. I also think the vocals could be a lot better (and probably also deeper in the mix) and the drum machine should either sound more like an actual drum or more like a drum machine, not this trying-to-sound-like-a-drumset-but-clearly-not-the-real-thing. I'm gonna finish the album though, and I do think it has a lot of potential. Looking forward to album 2. You were right about it being "Darkspace gone death metal" though, that's definitely an accurate description. And how the fuck am I supposed to pronounce that name??!!
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989 |
Written by Zap on 10.12.2014 at 19:17 I think the S is silent, I've just been saying it "Zoo-peer-ee-on" 
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989 |
Written by [user id=4365] on 10.12.2014 at 19:09 Yeah, looks a lot like your cliché black metal logo. The project is listed on MA as death metal/black metal, this one just sounds like atmospheric death to me, but there are still some previous demos and EPs I haven't looked at yet. Maybe some of the earlier material was more BM-ish
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Written by Auntie Sahar on 10.12.2014 at 19:34 Haven't heard this yet, but never trust MA. They list Grave Miasma as black/death.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 10.12.2014 at 19:41 Yeah, I was skeptical myself, but again, that logo does give off something of a BM aesthetic, so I don't know. Off to the demos I go, I guess
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| MetalDoomMaster Posts: 566 |
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| virvum Posts: 7 |
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989 |
Written by virvum on 11.12.2014 at 21:30 I really hate how trying something creative within typically rigid genres these days is called "hipster" or "indie," like it's a degrading term. Here's a hint, not everybody trying out something more original is an edgy, pretentious dumbass.
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| virvum Posts: 7 |
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989 |
Written by virvum on 11.12.2014 at 22:12 Well that seems to be your problem more so than the fault of the review itself. Please remember that reviews are at the end of the day, opinions, so not to be taken as 100% fact. Having said that, however, I would like to believe that the statement that there has been a spike of creativity in death metal in recent years is pretty hard to argue against. Have you checked out the recent albums by the band names I've mentioned? All fairly innovative and interesting interpretations of the subgenre while at the same time remaining true to their roots. Yes, this is all at the end of the day subjective interpretation, but based upon some pretty grounded facts I would say.
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| virvum Posts: 7 |
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| MetalDoomMaster Posts: 566 |
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989 |
Written by virvum on 11.12.2014 at 23:37 Yeah, I'm gonna stop explaining, you're obviously missing the point.
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| virvum Posts: 7 |
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| MetalDoomMaster Posts: 566 |
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| virvum Posts: 7 |
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