Xentrix belong to that class of band who showed much promise but for whatever reason, never quite broke through to the upper echelons. In their case it was a combination of changing styles in music, line-up changes, and if we are being honest, an almost dismissal within the industry that decent thrash (or metal for that case) wasn’t meant to come from the UK. With the big four of thrash all hailing from the US, plus a burgeoning death metal scene, they never really had a fair .
Still, with albums such as 1990’s For whose Advantage, for a brief moment they showed that thrash metal could come from outside the US (or Germany too, for that case), and whilst a cover of the Ghostbusters theme tune may have tarred them as unserious, that was forgetting the inherent humour in much of thrash (for a new example see Municipal Waste). In reality, they were a tight band whose music at times transcended that of their peers.
So years in and after a previous sputtering reincarnation they are back with a new album Allied With The Enemy (following on from 2022’s Seven Words), and whilst the years may have gone by, they have not lost any of their steely edge. Indeed, there is little to separate this older version from that of For Whose Advantage, perhaps with a more wiser head which adds some grown up aggression to tracks such as ‘Rip Saw’, ‘On Burned Remains’, and the storming title track. It’s a band unleashed from the past, with a point to prove.
Xentrix still retain that innate sense of melody too, with the harmonics on ‘Doomsday Hook’ offsetting the ferocious delivery. There’s that old cheekiness also, with ‘Rip Saw’ and its cod-medieval ending. They even attempt balladry on ‘The Dark Eternal’ which offers short respite, albeit we are talking balladry of the early heavy Metallica style here. Age has graced them with a new knowledge of powerful song construction.
In what’s already been a great year for thrash, Xentrix have now offered another great addition and it really does seem like the genre is having a bit of a renaissance. Allied With The Enemy is a great reminder of a band that could have been, and maybe on this go around, that appreciation will grow to what it deserves to be. Excellent.
