Xerath were an English heavy metal band from

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is the largest town in the county of Hampshire. It is situated in south-central England and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon, at the far western edge of The North Downs. It is located north-east of Southa ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

. Formed in 2007, the band gained international recognition after the release of their debut album ''I (One)'' via

Candlelight Records Candlelight Records is a British record label based in England and founded by former Extreme Noise Terror bassist Lee Barrett, though it has had a division in the United States since January 2001. Candlelight Records specialises in black met ...

in 2009, a record label they stuck with throughout their existence. Containing elements of

progressive Progressive may refer to: Politics * Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform ** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context * Progressive realism, an American foreign policy pa ...

death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

thrash Thrash may refer to: *Thrashing (computer science), where increasing resources are used to do a decreasing amount of work * Thrash (surname) * Thrash, mascot of the Atlanta Thrashers *'' Thrash Rally'', a top-down perspective rally racing video ga ...

and

symphonic metal Symphonic metal is a cross-generic style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guita ...

, Xerath's music is characterized by the mix of

polyrhythmic Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhyth ...

guitar riffing and drumming, with

orchestral An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ...

and

symphonic A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning co ...

elements. Xerath cited their influences as

Strapping Young Lad Strapping Young Lad was a Canadian extreme metal band formed by Devin Townsend in Vancouver in 1994. The band started as a one-man studio project; Townsend played most of the instruments on the 1995 debut album, '' Heavy as a Really Heavy Thin ...

Dimmu Borgir Dimmu Borgir () is a Norwegian symphonic black metal band from Jessheim, formed in 1993. The name is derived from Dimmuborgir, a volcanic formation in Iceland, the name of which means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic ...

, and Opeth as well as

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

composition and an eclectic mix of other bands and genres. After nearly a decade of touring and three album releases (named sequentially ''I'', ''II'' and ''III''), the group disbanded in early 2017.

History

Formation of band

Xerath was the brainchild of its first guitarist, Andy Phillips, who formed the band in 2007 with drummer Michael Pitman, bassist Owain Williams and Richard Thomson as an experiment to combine

style composition and classical music with technical heavy metal. The idea was to try and take advantage of a direction that metal music had failed to exploit, with the rare exceptions of bands like

. In that first year, Xerath won the

Terrorizer Magazine ''Terrorizer'' was an extreme music magazine published by Dark Arts Ltd. in the United Kingdom. It was released every four weeks with thirteen issues a year and featured a "Fear Candy" covermount CD, a twice yearly "Fear Candy Unsigned" CD, an ...

best unsigned band competition based on reader votes, which led to, in early 2008, signing their first record deal with

, a record label they remained with for their entire history.

Success

Xerath released their debut CD entitled ''I'' (One) in May 2009, this was followed by their first notable live performance at

Bloodstock Open Air Bloodstock Open Air is a British heavy metal festival held annually at Catton Hall in Walton-on-Trent, Derbyshire, since 2005. Originally held indoors for one day with two stages, the festival started in 2001 at the Derby Assembly Rooms and ...

festival. They went on to become regulars at the festival, playing there in 2011, 2013 and 2015. By the time their second album, ''II'' (Two), was released on 3 May 2011, Owain Williams was the lead-guitarist and the band was a well established success, they were touring China and

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

, and were often seen at Europe's music festivals such as

Euroblast The Euroblast Festival is a heavy metal music festival taking place in Cologne, Germany since 2008. The festival was initiated by close friends John Giulio Sprich and Daniel Schneider. Background The Euroblast Festival, alongside the UK-Tech- ...

. Their third and final album ''III'' (Three), with new lead-guitarist Conor McGouran, was released in September 2014.

Demise

Xerath's lead guitarist position changed twice in their history. Andy Phillips, the band's principle founder and first lead-guitarist was replaced by former bassist Owain Williams, who was in turn replaced by guitarist Conor McGouran in 2013. The average of one lead guitarist per album released did not dampen the success of the band, but in 2016 both the bassist and drummer changed and splits in the direction that Xerath needed to go started to appear. Richard Thomson was the band's only remaining founding member when they announced their disbandment on 1 February 2017 via an announcement on their Facebook page. Their final recording, ''Regret'', was released online along with the announcement. Their planned fourth album was never completed, officially announced nor named, but it was often mentioned and referred to as IV or IIII (four) based on their previous album names. Two members went on to team up with

Jørn Lande Jørn Marumsrud Lande (born May 31, 1968) is a Norwegian hard rock and heavy metal singer and songwriter. He is known for his work with the bands Ark, Beyond Twilight, Millenium, Vagabond, The Snakes, and most notably with power metal band ...

, ZP Theart and others in the band Pentakill, whose second album (prefixed with a Xerath-like ''II'') topped the iTunes metal chart shortly thereafter.

Band members

Final lineup

* Richard Thomson – vocals * Conor McGouran – guitar * Steve Woodcock – bass * Ben Wanders – drums

Previous members

* Andy Phillips – guitars * Owain Williams – guitars and bass * Christopher Clark – bass * Michael Pitman – drums

Discography

Studio albums

All three of Xerath's albums were released by

. * '' I'' (2009) * '' II'' (2011) * '' III'' (2014)

References

External links

Xerath Myspace page

Tower Studio's official site

Candlelight Records

Xerath last fm page

Rain Song Design
{{Authority control English progressive metal musical groups Musical groups established in 2007 Musical groups disestablished in 2017