It’s been a long road for metal band Xenobiotic to release their debut album.
After years of hard work, the Perth quintet is now excited to release ‘Prometheus’. “It’s been a few years in the making and it’s been exceptionally frustrating,” says guitarist and lyricist Nish Raghavan.
“We had a few money issues, personal health issues, family issues; stuff just kept getting in the way. It’s been rough, but we managed to stay together.
"Now we’re at the point where it’s coming together and we’re able to give this band what it actually needs and our people what they want.”
Filled with hard death-metal riffing, ‘Prometheus’ is conceptually based around Nish’s interpretation of the Ancient Greek myth, a story he is endlessly fascinated with.
“There was potential to tell a story about the human condition and how we’re always frequently wrestling with the good and the bad things in ourselves.
“Prometheus represents the human ideal and he wanted to pass it on to humanity. But, of course, when you’re passing things on to humanity you’re dealing with a temperamental primate who will tear everything to pieces if you give them the opportunity.”
Dwelling within what he describes as “the darkest thing I’ve ever written”, Nish also injected a lot of musicianship. Having graduated from the Western Australian Academy Of Performing Arts, Nish took lessons from his studies to craft complex songs.
“That was actually a massive point on the album to play around with light, shade and dynamics a lot, and just seeing what we could do with the deathcore sound.”
Xenobiotic released the single ‘Alone’ last year. It’s a catchy thrill-ride with inspiration from unusual sources. “‘Alone’ is a little bit of an anomaly because it’s very influenced by pop in terms of its loud-quiet structure, the way it’s set out and the repetition.
“It’s got that Pharrell Williams writing technique of starting with the bassline and the drums first, and then everything else comes in.”
After working on ‘Prometheus’, Nish and his bandmates are relieved. But they’re also excited to finally have their debut album out and will be celebrating with an album launch show at Badlands Bar next month.
“We’ve got an amazing line-up. We’ve got Falcifer coming over from South Australia, who are incredible.
“We’ve also got Conform, Owed To Damnation and Population Control from Perth. It’s just a heavy line-up and it’s all kinds of heavy, as well.
"We’re not quite sure whether to plan for encores. We don’t want to be those arrogant dudes who assume that we are going to get an encore, but we don’t want to be caught off guard.”
After their launch, Xenobiotic plan to take ‘Prometheus’ out on the road as well as thinking about their next step. “I’m personally always writing, and I’m always trying to write the next record and think one record ahead,” he says.
“We are definitely going to make ‘Prometheus’ the focus of this year. We have started working on some new stuff and are trying to think about where the sounds can go next. But we don’t want to take as long as the debut [album],” he laughs.
