Xathrites is one of the most successful depressive black metal bands in the Middle East. It was formed in 2005 in Iraq and released their second full-length album in July 2013 entitled My Last Day Story.
The album contained 8 tracks; Xathrites cooperated with two Egyptian guest vocalists in most of the tracks. Lord Mist from Frostagrath, Hecate, Hateful Desolation, he participated in two tracks of the album. The other guest vocalist is – Omar Magdy Zak from Maqpra, and he joined in 4 tracks from this album.
The first track was ‘My Last Day Story’, talked about the thoughts and the ideas that storms into any suicidal person and how they felt before ending their lives. The excellent usage of Keys and spoken parts delivered well the suicidal feeling. The atmosphere of the track was really depressive and the music was extremely dark.
The second and the third track featured Lord Mist from Frostagrath. He was a great addition to the album and gave the album more brilliance. ‘Suicide Was My End’ had amazing guitar riffs, which attracted the listener to focus on every single riff of the track. The melancholic atmosphere of the track was suitable for Lord Mist’s vocals and, the third track also ‘Screaming From Inside’ was great.
The album also contained instrumental track ‘Sounds Of Heaven’. It was preformed with acoustic guitar and everyone knows the magic that acoustic guitars form. ‘Sounds Of Heaven’ was followed by 4 more tracks, and Omar Zak from Maqpra performed the vocals. ‘Life Complicated’ was for me, the most depressed track in this album; great vocals pitch, amazing guitar solo and melancholic lyrics. ‘Destruction Of Humanity’ is an oriental track, however, in my opinion, I thought that it was out of the concept of the album theme and atmosphere. Xathrites covered one of the most famous songs for Nocturnal Depression, ‘Nostalgia’. It was good cover version, indeed. The Last track, ‘The Dark World’, I highly think this is the track that will take your mind back to the real theme of the album.
The album was really a good piece of art, the quality was good also and the best thing in this release is the variety of vocals through the tracks. I give the album 8 out of 10.
Edited by: NJ Bakr
