"Xenotaph" by Fallujah

Lengthy Album Review

1. Album Overview

Fallujah released their album “Xenotaph” on June 13, 2025, on Nuclear Blast Records. Fallujah formed in San Francisco, CA, in 2007, although today the band is now located in Nashville, Tennessee. The band’s foundational line-up from their first album consisted of drummer Andrew Baird, guitarist Rob Maramonte, lead guitarist Scott Carstairs, bassist Rob Morey, and vocalist Alex Hofmann. Over the years, the band has had its share of line-up changes, most notably vocalist Alex Hofmann leaving the band after their 3rd album, bassist Rob Morey leaving after their 4th album, and drummer Andrew Baird leaving after their 5th album. The band is currently made up of four members: bassist Evan Brewer, vocalist Kyle Schaefer, rhythm guitarist Sam Mooradian, and guitarist Scott Carstairs, who is also the sole original member. The band has released two demos, two EPs, one single, one split, and 6 full length albums (“The Harvest Wombs” in 2011, “The Flesh Prevails” in 2014, “Dreamless” in 2016, “Undying Light” in 2019, “Empyrean” in 2022, and “Xenotaph” in 2025.)

Based on their past work, I expected this album to be more of the same that I got from their last album. I hadn’t heard anything from the album before its release, so I was able to listen to the entire thing completely blind, which was nice for a change. I wasn’t the biggest fan of their last album, but it was nice to hear the band have a better-fitting vocalist and to hear them return to their signature sound after the highly disappointing “Undying Light” album.

2. Subgenre & Style

Fallujah is categorized as Progressive/Technical Death Metal. The album compares decently to other bands in the subgenre. Although Fallujah’s sound is primarily derived from Carstairs’s style of guitar-playing, giving them a unique sound that separates them from other bands in the genre. Fallujah values melody and atmosphere more than most of their compatriots.

3. Production & Mixing

I must say that Fallujah’s mixes are always amazing, and it seems like they continue to improve over time. They are always polished, defined, and clear. Since their mixes are always so consistently good, none of the instruments ever seems to overpower each other. Everything is balanced very well. The drums are extremely punchy, and the entire kit is easy to hear, from the booming bass drum to the crisp bell of the ride cymbal. The bass, at times, can be a little difficult to hear with the guitars and drums bellowing simultaneously, but then there are times when it is present. As a whole, the level of production that Fallujah strives for in their mixes always fits the atmosphere they intend to convey.

4. Guitar Work & Riffs

There are many riffs on this album that are quite memorable. Scott Carstairs continues to improve as a guitar player and songwriter, and the riffs on this album testify to this fact. Some of the riffs on “The Crystalline Veil,” “Kaleidoscopic Waves,” and “Labyrinth of Stone” are incredible. There are many solos throughout the album, but the couple that left me thinking, “That was absolutely incredible,” are on “Labyrinth of Stone” and “Kaleidoscopic Waves.” The solos on “Kaleidoscopic Waves” were great both in their quality of shredding and in their ability to contain emotional appeal. In contrast, the solos in “Labyrinth of Stone” were just outstanding in general. The quality of both the rhythm and lead work was perfect. I especially want to point out that the rhythm guitar sections (during sections containing leads and solos) were unbelievably good. At times, they worked well with the drums, and both complemented each other effectively.

5. Drumming & Percussion

The drums on this album are technical, fast, and crushing. I was pleasantly surprised by how good the drums are on this record. The double bass and blast beats, at times, were extremely fast, and the fills were highly technical and satisfying. The overall intensity of the drums on this release is perfect, and exactly what you would hope and strive for in a progressive/technical death metal record.

After the departure of long-time drummer Andrew Baird, I wasn’t sure this band could maintain their sound and thought, “Are we going to eventually see ‘Undying Light’ part two?” The drums on that release are very groove-oriented and slow, but thankfully, the drums managed to sound like they always used to in Fallujah’s music, fast, crushing, and technical. I looked up who performed and recorded drums on “Xenotaph” and found that it was Canadian drummer Kevin Alexander, whose drum work I was familiar with from the experimental progressive/avant‑garde metal band Vvon Dogma I. I always knew he was a great drummer, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear how good and technical he is, since the drums on “Xenotaph” and incredible. He does a great job of maintaining the band’s sound drum-wise and complements the music quite well.

There is a good amount of odd time signatures on the album. Some are full sections, whereas others are short parts designed to transition from one riff to another. I heard a lot of 7/8 on the album as a whole. One song I can specifically recall that contains a lot of sections in 7/8 throughout is the song “The Obsidian Architect.” The incorporation of these odd time signatures isn’t something Fallujah is particularly notable for, but they do a good job utilizing them in their songwriting overall.

6. Bass & Low End

The bass, for the most part, tends to fade into the background of the mix to provide low-end support. I wouldn’t say it is buried in the mix, but it is mostly there to support what the guitars are doing, which is a shame for the most part, as having someone as talented as Evan Brewer in your band, you’d think he’d get a lot more time in the spotlight, but sadly doesn’t. With all that being said, the bass does contribute to the heaviness and technicality of the album as a whole. One standout bass part that I thoroughly enjoyed is on the song “Step Through the Portal and Breathe.” It was unexpected, but it was nice to hear a bass solo at all. The song “Xenotaph” has a clean section in it where the bass can be heard, and it has a great tone as well.

7. Vocals & Lyrics

Vocalist Kyle Schaefer does a great job at his numerous vocal styles, consisting of black metal fry vocals, midrange vocals, low death growls, and singing. It seems he has now come into his own on his second album with the band. When it comes to his singing specifically, he does a good job of conveying emotion. His screams possess a good amount of power, and everything he does works well on the album.

The main themes that the band has typically spoken about throughout their career are cosmic isolation, psycho-spiritual deception, and existentialism. There seems to be a lot of influence from Frank Herbert’s Dune series regarding the lyrics on this album, but the band has shown that they are capable of effectively crafting their own narratives. The lyrical themes of “Xenotaph” primarily consist of what happens after death. It can essentially be specifically categorized as a post-mortem science fiction journey. The songs on the album help tell this tale as follows: “In Stars We Drown” and “Kaleidoscopic Waves” illustrate waking up after death in confusion and being met by a guide, “Step Through The Portal and Breathe” and “The Obsidian Architect” display the journey going deeper as it details enduring metaphysical trials, and the track “Xenotaph” speaks about confronting your psyche.

8. Atmosphere & Emotion

The album gives off a strong feeling of otherworldliness that speaks to the atmospheric and grandiose metal Fallujah creates. The use of effects, synths, and orchestrations helps sell and convey the metaphysical and cosmic journey of Fallujah’s music. They all enhance the atmosphere of the music very well, which also helps set them apart from other bands in the same genre. The experience this album gives works well and helps transport the listener to the higher plane that Fallujah’s music seems to operate in. As mentioned previously, the album does a great job of making everything feel grandiose on the album. I didn’t even realize how talented Kyle Schaefer is, as he is the one who wrote and recorded all the synth sections for the album in only five days. You can see this all evidenced in the video below.

9. Songwriting & Structure

The songs on the album are decently well-structured, but some of them do feel repetitive at times. I feel that the first half of the album is structured and written more coherently, while the second half of the album has more moments of repetitiveness and compositional inconsistencies.

10. Standout Tracks

The best songs on the album are “Kaleidoscopic Waves,” “Labyrinth of Stone,” and “The Crystalline Veil.” First off, “Kaleidoscopic Waves” is a great song, but it’s the third-best track on the album for me. It has a great intro, and the clean vocals added an element to Fallujah’s music that I felt worked decently well. The solos on this track were emotional and beautiful. This song is also a great demonstration of the album’s mix being fantastic. The clean section where the drum fills are occurring is impressive and quite satisfying to listen to. The only thing that didn’t do it for me for this song was that I couldn’t help but think that it was a song I had heard before on their last album. Next, “Labyrinth of Stone” is the second-best song on this album. It has a cool fade-in intro, and the high and low vocals work well on this track. One clean vocal part reminded me of something on The Faceless’ album “Autotheism,” while the section where the blast beats start sounded like something off Obscura’s “Omnivium” album. A lot of the riffs in this song are very much jazz-fusion inspired, and they were awesome to listen to. Lastly, the solo at the end of this song is one of my favorite solos on the entire record. The best song on the record is “The Crystalline Veil.” I liked the clean intro that the song possesses; it reminds me of something on Fallujah’s “Dreamless” album. The variance of vocals on the song works extremely well. The riffs on this song in particular don’t just sound amazing, they sound absolutely solid as well. This song possesses the best chord progressions the entire album has to offer. The last 50 seconds or so of the song sold me on the song being the best, as it consists of a great blend of drum beats that back up the ferocious riffing the guitars lay down. It felt like the most composed and complete track on the album.

Now, getting to the worst songs on this album. I would say they are “In Stars We Drown,” “A Parasitic Dream,” and “The Obsidian Architect.” The main shortcoming I have with “In Stars We Drown” is that the song felt more like a short interlude track rather than a full song. Some of what the song possesses, such as the piano sections, for example, are awesome, and I wondered why we got so little of that section, or why didn’t we hear those ideas fleshed out more. Once the whole band came in, it felt like it came out of nowhere, and it didn’t transition well at all. Again, I did like certain ideas the song has, but it felt like the band wasted opportunities to improve them. I wish some of the ideas on this song could have been actualized more efficiently than they were. Next, “The Obsidian Architect” was a song that I both liked and disliked. I will say that the song has a distinct identity when compared to the rest of the album. Some of the riffs on that song were good as well. However, it also contained chord progressions I didn’t like, as I felt that they didn’t resolve well. The chorus in the song seemed very out of place. It was also the first time, while listening to the whole album, that about halfway through this song, I started feeling uninterested, as I felt like everything Fallujah was doing on the album was drawn out by that point. The song wasn’t keeping me as focused as I was hoping to be while listening to it. The last, and arguably, worst song on this record is “A Parasitic Dream.” “A Parasitic Dream” has very few good qualities to it, if any at all. To start, the song doesn’t seem to have much going for it until after the minute-long intro, and since the song is three minutes and thirty-three seconds long, it felt like I was being robbed of a song. The song is also boring and doesn’t seem to go anywhere interesting. The worst quality of this song, however, is that it made me feel like the band was forced to have eight songs on the album, so they quickly whipped this track up to save face. I’m not saying that happened, I’m merely stating that this is how much of an afterthought this song comes off for me. I really do believe that if this song were not on the album, it would have been better, honestly.

The tracks that define the album’s sound are “Kaleidoscopic Waves” and “Step Through the Portal and Breathe.” “Kaleidoscopic Waves” possesses all the hallmarks Fallujah is known for, and it is a great representative of the entire album without going overboard on any of them. “Step Through the Portal and Breathe” is another great representative of the album. It also showcases some more vocal varieties and possesses a bass solo that, while unexpected, fits nicely within the song. This track also shows that Fallujah continues to see what works regarding their sound and what doesn’t. The singing portions of this song work well and are balanced by excellent guitar and drum parts.

11. Originality & Innovation

The album helps propel Fallujah as the band that is the king in this specific style of progressive/technical death metal. However, they definitely have a formula they continually push, and sometimes it does get a little stale, especially after listening to an entire album of theirs the whole way through uninterrupted. I believe the album does a good job of bringing fresh ideas to the table, so to speak, but some may feel that the album is a rehash of past albums and believe that the band has reached a creative plateau.

12. Replay Value & Lasting Impact

I believe metal fans will return to this album frequently, as Fallujah not only has a dedicated fanbase, but most metal listeners enjoy the guitar, and this album is rife with fantastic riffs and solos that cannot be ignored. As far as this album ranks with other releases in the genre, I think it does a good job of setting itself apart. The band has done a great job of carving out an effective niche within their genre, and they can comfortably reside there.

13. Final Verdict & Rating

In summation, I did enjoy listening to this album. Fallujah got a lot right on this album. I am pleasantly surprised by how much better Kyle Schaefer got as a vocalist. He seems to possess more vocal variance as a whole, and he did a great job of knowing when to sing and when to use his highs and lows. His singing, in particular, adds some much-needed characteristics that work for the band. I also enjoyed how dynamic this album is. The energy throughout the album is outstanding. The drums and guitars especially convey how dynamic the album is as a whole. It also helped speak to how great the mix is on this album as well. Lastly, I truly do believe that this album has some of Scott Carstairs’ finest guitar work out of all of Fallujah’s discography. This album is a cornucopia of riffs galore, a true guitar haven. I don’t know how Carstairs continues to improve as a guitar player, but he is honestly at the metal guitar apex alongside a few others right now. However, this album, as much as I enjoyed it, did have several major issues as well. First, the album was resistible. It wasn’t able to capture my undivided attention at times, and it was not as compelling the entire time as I was hoping the album would be. Some songs demanded I listen closely and soak up all the good from them, while others came off as deterrents, forcing me to turn my focus and attention somewhere else. Next, there were a lot of songwriting inconsistencies throughout the album. There were several missed opportunities to either extend, shorten, or craft more solid musical sections. For example, as good as the title track is, the ending for that song dragged on too long, the riff that comes in at the halfway point feels disjointed from the rest of the track, and the great clean section in that song wasn’t extended longer as it should have been. It felt like at least half the songs on the album had similar wasted opportunities. I could name several other specific examples, but hopefully I’ve made my point clear on this particular matter. Lastly, perhaps the cardinal sin of this record is that it was monotonous at times. About halfway through the record, I felt like I had heard everything on the album already. I also felt like, while listening to the album for the first time, I was hearing things I had heard before on earlier albums. There were at least three parts in the album where it made me think, “This sounds exactly like a part from the Nomadic EP.” There were also a couple of parts that could have fooled me that it was a track from “Dreamless” if I hadn’t been paying close attention. It made me feel like the growth and progression the band employed on this record wasn’t as far away from “Empyrean” as I was hoping for. I am glad that this band is finally in a “return to form,” but I am very much hoping that their next release sees real progression in their composition skills, to where I won’t feel like it’s the same release over and over again. I do feel that if any band can do this, Fallujah, with the immense amount of talent they have, can do so effectively and efficiently. This album is good overall, but there is definite room for further improvement.

Overall, on a scale of 1-10 (1 being awful and 10 being perfect), I would give this album a 7 out of 10.