CD review, Apr 07. Xentrix - For Whose Advantage / Kin

Xentrix – For Whose Advantage

Reviewed - 23.04.07

It’s with some trepidation that I approach these Xentrix reviews, because to be quite honest, I always thought they were crap. When they came out in 1989 they were just so far behind what was happening in thrash and like most of the British also-ran thrashers, copied Metallica’s blueprint almost entirely. Worse still they did that god-awful, supposedly funny cover of 80’s pop tune Ghostbusters. While my friends all thought it was great, I thought it was dire; another thrash cliché and another nail in the coffin. The Pythonesque slapstick of Acid Reign or Lawnmower Deth just didn’t fit with the otherwise pretty po-faced image Xentrix had and I thought it did the band no favours. Reign In Blood didn’t need a bloody Pointer Sisters cover in ’86 did it?

Question is, how’s 17 years been to the poor blighters? In hindsight, I can see the band were probably just surfing the thrash wave from a ‘lets form a band’. I now realize that they were probably not trying to take over the world, though that might have been nice, and were just following the little success they had. Recent one-off gig activity finds the band too busy with non-musical related lives to attempt to rehash former half-glories and tellingly, to me, nice short haircuts.

Kicking off here with their second album For Whose Advantage, the prime candidate for my Metallica-clone bile, strangely I now find this album oddly compelling. While I still balk at the utter And Justice For All-ness of it, during a run through the other day while in a joyful mood, I actually found myself air guitaring and even a spot of the old headbanging! I quite shocked myself as I almost verbalized the words ‘fucking hell, this isn’t too bad!’. It can’t really be denied that there are a some good easy listening thrash tracks on here. Probably the kind of thrash glam rockers might enjoy, or maybe for the people that find Testament, the other band that tinge Xentrix’s sound, too heavy. It’s kind of the good and bad mixed up in one really. Catchy, but unchallenging.

To get into specifics, I’d say it’s Chris Astley’s vocals that really give Xentrix that jobbing UK thrash band vibe. He has no range, little variation and no detectable enthusiasm. They just don’t have any bite and in the end while it’s all quite listenable, it’s just too…unremarkable. Even though there are plenty of mid-paced, riffy workouts, they mostly sound like And Justice For All outtakes. I won’t name tracks as you could choose any of them really. Lyrics typically touch on the typical socio-political issues. The CD has bonus and live tracks from the Dilute to Taste EP, which have a little more authority but no particular musical advancement.

However, I’ll give the guys respect for coming up with some quite catchy riffs and rhythms. There’s nothing to trouble anyone here really, but if you’re knocking back a few beers with some old friends before a night out, or maybe just doing the dishes, this is a nice unthreatening reminder of what thrash was about before the tide rolled back leaving only the high water mark left by Xentrix’ elders and betters.



Xentrix – Kin

Xentrix released their 3rd album Kin in 1993, and into a rather unstable musical environment. As the rather refreshing CD inlay blurb explains, the band found themselves tagged as a thrash band in the dying days of thrash and attempted, as many others did, to distance themselves from the tag and the style. This album then is that attempt.

Having not heard Kin before, and now having listened to it a fair few times, I do appreciate what they were trying to achieve, theoretically if not musically. Although they tried to lose the thrash tag, those telltale mid-paced chugs, open power chords and pre-chorus buildups and are all in evidence. There are some interesting musical ideas, twin guitar melodies, and a nice bit of bass work which doesn’t always follow the guitar lines. It slows and spreads the vibe into an almost more commercial sound, but certainly doesn’t sound like it’s selling out, just a little more inventive.

That said, we’re talking about Xentrix who’s specialty was certainly not invention. All Bleed Red could sit alongside anything they’d recorded previously and I can’t help but think that much younger bands like Death Angel wiped the floor with this stuff; in speed, melody, intricacy, power… everything. Unfortunately while vocalist Chris Astley tries to spread his style with some clear singing, his gruff vocals remain and root the attempts at variation to the same old Xentrix style. Track 4 No More Time heralds the first of a handful of very basic keyboard led power ballads with, and I swear, the exact guitar sound from Metallica’s Dyers Eve built into a very watered down Justice style build up of bedroom guitar riffs. Seven minutes later and I certainly don’t feel like I’ve had a musical epiphany.

Kin continues in much the same vein; simple riffing, attempted bass and drum interplay and unremarkable vocals. Only the ironically titled Waiting (my sarcasm) shows off anything in the way of a half interesting guitar solo. The almost Solitude Aeturnus vibe of See Through You is right up my street, but it’s one track and too little to late. We’re still talking Metal by numbers and while I’m loathe to dig into a British band, well, that’s just how it is. The production is possibly rather flat too. While you can hear everything clearly enough, it sounds just a little too clean, very little fullness or bite in the sound. To be fair I don’t know if this is a remastering issue, but I doubt it. That said, the music is there for all to see, or rather hear. It’s all very pleasant but if I want pleasant I’ll go play some early Michael Jackson.