X-terra-X-Nihilo

Self-produced
2007

Long running Christian hard rock act X-Terra most recent release is a collection of material that was written in 1997, 2005 and 2007. Much like their previous release "Wolves" this album is a mix of styles. There are elements of hard rock, metal and others tossed in during the course of the fourteen tracks contained on this disc. The influences are scattered as I hear early Rush, AC/DC, Black Sabbath and others . Unfortunately the results are varied as well. This is a band obviously has some fine playing skills and this shines through in the varied drumbeats and the guitar solos. However the writing ranges from decent down to dull and scattered. They typically shine early in almost every song. However they seem lose momentum and direction as they get into the tracks. There is a tendency for the lyrics to just drag on and the vocals ramble on robbing the songs of the cohesive feel that could have been there. The know to create come fine harmonies with the music, but there are too few choruses that are memorable. This was only a minor problem on the previous album, but it has become more of a handicap this time around. There are standout parts on this album, but very few whole songs that really impressed me. That's a shame because this a veteran outfit who have done fine songs before, but here they seem to have throw organization to the wind and the final product suffered greatly.

http://www.myspace.com/xterra