"Tech-metal outfit FALLUJAH expand horizons and solidify their position as one of America’s most exciting artists on their new album, Xenotaph, through Nuclear Blast. The Bay Area-based quintet’s confidence in the lineup that made their previous album, Empyrean (2022), such a resounding success—earning high marks from Metal Injection, New Noise, and Guitar World—has been reconfigured slightly, with guitarist Sam Mooradian (INHALE EXISTENCE, SAM MOORADIAN) and drummer Kevin Alexander (DISEMBODIED TYRANT. BROUGHT BY PAIN) bringing their jaw-dropping musical proficiency to the fold, as vocalist Kyle Schaefer, guitarist Scott Carstairs, and bassist Evan Brewer enter a new chapter with FALLUJAH. Moored by singles ‘Kaleidoscopic Waves,’ ‘Labyrinth of Stone,’ and ‘Step Through the Portal and Breathe,’ Xenotaph is FALLUJAH personified, reinvigorated, and re-imagined. “Having numerous self-sufficient writers in the band who all agreed on a shared vision allowed us to work as a team to make sure every song was intense, detailed, and dynamic but not overbearing in any aspect, at least to our tastes,” Carstairs says. “We spent many hours trying out different arrangements and had a goal from the beginning to keep the song structures fast-paced and dense with tons of different parts in each song. We also tried to push the music in a simultaneously more melodic and more technical/progressive direction—even crazier riffs and solos balanced out by atmospheric moments and more prominent clean vocal hooks.” 1. In Stars We Drown 2. Kaleidoscopic Waves 3. Labyrinth of Stone 4. The Crystalline Veil 5. Step Through the Portal and Breathe 6. A Parasitic Dream 7. The Obsidian Architect 8. Xenotaph
