Xantossa unfortunately had the hard task to open the evening, but right from the beginning they had a pretty big following. The band was founded in 2005 and already plays a fine set of death metal in the vein of bands like Grave and Bolt Thrower. The majority of the material is in a mid tempo which grooves well and occasionally a blast beat storms in. Singer Sander Boere has a deep, low grunt like Glen Benton, but he adds some filthiness which gives the music a little gore twist, every now and then we also get to hear some blackish screams. The whole is taken to next level by the tightness of the guitar player; he provides a real solid fundament. Screwball of the quartet was the bass player in his totally Nike outfit and it was a weird sight when a birthday cake was brought on stage for the singer, but it didn’t harm the show too much and gave me a good laugh. Because it was a band contest the show was way too short and Xantossa didn’t win, but who cares; I got what I came for and that was a nice show of death metal.

 

An entire demo can be downloaded from their site which was recorded live at the same venue as the show of this night; a new demo should be available soon.