With guitar, bass, and drums playing beyond the speed of light, and vocals set to screams unheard of by most humans, death metal is a music genre that serves a certain taste.
But it has a ton of followers, including many in the Okanagan who are unafraid to enter its depths,
One death metal band that comes out of Vernon has just released its debut album.
“We call our music blackened death metal, or black metal,” said Xul vocalist Levi Meyers, who joins lead guitarist Wallace Huffman, rhythm guitarist/backup vocalist Bill Ferguson, drummer Lowell Winters and bassist Marlow Dieter in the band.
“We’re all Vernon based. Marlow is from Germany, but he has lived here for 15 years.”
Formed in 2008, the band’s new album, Malignance, features eight songs and was recorded by Kelowna’s Jeff Bryan at his Hadean Records studio.
“We worked on it for a full year, and now it’s prepped and ready to go. We just played a show in Kelowna to release it,” said Meyers.
Xul is now on a mini tour of Western Canada that started in Vancouver on the weekend, and will next perform locally at the Armstrong Metal Fest with metal bands from all over the province.
“This will be our fourth year playing at metal fest,” said Meyers. “We hope to go on tour across Canada next spring.”
Locals will be able to pick up a copy of Xul’s latest at the festival, which takes place at Armstrong’s Hassen Arena July 20 and 21. Tickets and more information are available at www. armstrongmetalfest.ca.
More on Xul is available at soundcloud.com/xulofficial or www.facebook.com/Xulband.
