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Xasthur > Defective Epitaph > Reviews
Xasthur - Defective Epitaph

Hard to digest, but to be expected - 82%

BlackMetal213, January 30th, 2018

Well, I'm bored out of my mind pulling 24-hour duty, so maybe I'll type up some random reviews. "Defective Epitaph" is Xasthur's sixth full-length album. If you thought the previous five were hard to take in and listen to in one sitting, as a lot of people feel about Xasthur in general, this album is more trying than the others. Well, this isn't necessarily MY feeling about it, but I can see how others would perceive it like this. It pretty much maintains the same sound as the previous records but sounds even harsher than the previous records and is even more drowning. The sorrow that immits from this record is real. If you're not already a Xasthur fan or a fan of depressive black metal in general, you may not be able to comprehend this, or its musical merit. Hell, even for me, it took a little bit of time to fully grasp and appreciate the album for what it is.

The length of this album really shows how much there is to listen to here. It's an hour and fifteen minutes in length with 12 songs. Previously, "Subliminal Genocide" was the band's longest full-length at a little over 70 minutes, not counting the 72-minute "A Gate Through Bloodstained Mirrors" demo. This makes "Defective Epitaph" his longest album, as the two that would follow are significantly shorter. Black metal is not usually known to have such long albums in terms of total length, especially this harsher, more dissonant style of black metal. It's not as if Xasthur makes music that is pleasing to the casual ear as it is, so this could be quite the challenge for some. Personally, because I enjoy this style, it doesn't bother me.

The album opens right away with "Soulless Elegy", which is a short song at under three minutes but doesn't just sound like an album's intro. It's more than just an intro track and actually shows a lot of what's to come on the remainder of this affair. Unlike his previous albums, Malefic (Scott Connor) generally plays on an actual acoustic drum kit with the drum machine still appearing here and there. It's a nice change but honestly, at least for me, really doesn't affect the music too much. Drum machines never really bugged me unless they're mixed poorly or stand out too much. The drums are mixed fine here with the rest of the album's raw sound. Guitars have that buzzsaw sound that was always a standard with this band's music as well. They sound a bit muddier here than before though. As you could expect, simplicity is a huge ingredient in Scott's sound. He doesn't do anything flashy, technical, progressive, or too musically demanding here and for what he was going for, of course, simplicity and atmosphere are enough.

Speaking of atmosphere, it's quite good here. It's not his best work, musically or atmospherically, but it's still solid and what could be expected from his musical history. The sound is sorrowful and depressive. Instead of really going with a specific musical flow, although there is one, the guitars, keyboards, and vocals work to create a massive wall of sound that has always been prominent on Xasthur albums. This doesn't end here. The vocals remain very tortured and hateful. Malefic sounds like a dying soul and he should, as this fits the sound of the music well. There isn't much variation between songs, though some contain more interludes and the lengths of the songs do vary a bit. The shortest is "Soulless Elegy" which is under the 3-minute mark, and the longest is the soul-shattering "Memorial to the Waste of Life". It would have been nice to hear some more clean segments in these songs, such as some acoustic guitar parts or non-distorted parts, but distortion and Xasthur became synonymous with each other, so what can you really expect in that department?

Overall, this album is a solid record though it doesn't stand out in comparison to some of his other releases. It definitely isn't his worst but doesn't really compare to "Nocturnal Poisoning" or "Subliminal Genocide." It's easier on the ears than "All Reflections Drained", though still a challenge. I'm sure other fans of Xasthur have heard this record but if not, give it a spin. Best listened to when drunk, exhausted, or as background music.

Boo! Haunted house - 16%

hakarl, January 24th, 2010

Xasthur is one of the modern depressive black metal projects that truly embody the controversality of the style. It's both praised and panned for the very fundamental characteristics that define the style: simple musicianship, extremely lo-fi sound quality, almost trance-inducing monotony, and vocals very unique in either good or very, very bad. However, while depressive black metal quite often seems to put aside all attempts at creating music to please the listener, instead opting to depict very strong negative emotions of the human mind to the point of making the music extremely hard to listen to, Xasthur generally maintains the levels of unlistenability at much lower rates. The music is designed to create atmosphere above all, and in Xasthur's case, it's not riffs or even melodies that work towards this end. Xasthur uses unique soundscapes and overall otherworldy peculiarity to channel atmosphere, and if anything, the atmosphere can be described as interesting. Depressive it rarely is, especially not on Xasthur's 2007 album ”Defective Epitaph”, as said album appears as little other than a forced, desperate effort to release something. If it stands out from the rest of Malefic's, erm, musical achievements, it's due to the album's particularly low level of quality. Whereas albums like ”Funeral Of Being” had some genuinely depressive music, and even despite the all-about-atmosphere attitude of Xasthur's probably most praised album, there are memorable parts. ”Defective Epitaph” is not quite as succesful.

”Defective Epitaph” is difficult to analyse in depth, as it mostly lacks any atmosphere genuinely worth mentioning, and considering what Xasthur is indeed mainly praised of pulling off with success, that is excellent potrayal of depressive and desperate atmosphere, this is quite a defect, if you will. What Malefic has used to get around this musical nothingness is formulaic and imitative songwriting. The melodies that are supposed to convey angst and unease, even terror, are about as scary as a 9 year old kid's halloween costume: corny and cliché, almost as if it was aimed to appear silly. As for atmosphere, that's where this album falls short most remarkably. What made Xasthur's music truly atmospheric was the imaginative and unique sound. Simple and even accessible melodies, at least for those enthusiastic about depressive music, managed to convey strong emotion at least for some time. The sound on this album, however, is perhaps unique, but fails to convey anything but ridicule. Whereas better Xasthur material got old with repeated listening, ”Defective Epitaph” was old before it was even released. Rather than being inspired and genuine, this album sounds very over-exaggerated to the point of sounding like parody of what Malefic has released prior to this abhorrent creation. ”Defective Epitaph” is Xasthur made into a product: it's stripped of all artistic elements, and it's former core is replaced with a hollow replica aimed to demonstrate a more simplistic image of Xasthur and depressive black metal altogether. It's Xasthur light – now without content!

”Soulless Elegy”, the opener, sounds like a dishonest attempt at creating something that Malefic would possibly be expected to create. It's nearly unlistenable because of the excessive dissonance and complete lack of a focal point. Unlike the opener, ”Purgatory Spiral” manages to carry out a theme, and a decent one at that too, only to be followed by the ridiculously theatralic and just plain goofy ”Cemetery Of Shattered Masks”. Whether this six minute piece of nothing is a metaphorical depiction of Malefic's severe depression or merely the fruits of uninspired laziness, it's nothing but a wall of sound devoid of any traces of musical inspiration or artistic brilliance. Sadly, tunes like track #3 are more than an exception on ”Defective Epitaph”. There are other moderately good tracks like ”Funerals Drenched In Apathy”, but most of the material here is unbeliavably pointless. The music is chaotic, and not in a good way: rather than being adventurous, innovative or progressive, it's simply all over the place. Random dissonant guitar noodling with obnoxiously bad guitar tone, drum machine like percussion and melodramatic yet bored screaming. Such drivel does not convey emotions or create atmosphere, especially if good melodies or riffs are nowhere to be found. In other words, two or three tracks and some short sections aside, this entire lenghty album is a complete void of musical quality. Perhaps it can be seen as a work of art, but it's certainly not a good one.

”Defective Epitaph” is beyond goofy or cheesy. It's the result of songwriting without any inspiration, or even perspiration. No effort was put into piling this crystallisation of depressive black metal insipidity together. It's a watered down parody with very little actual musical merit. It does not serve as a black metal album due to being entirely slow paced and without any energy or emotion put into it, and rather than being depressive it merely makes you sad for ever wasting your time listening to it. There is nothing philosophic or profound about it: the only thing it makes the listener think about is whether Malefic even attempted to create music to meet the listeners' expectations. Is this abomination just the result of a thin, weak artistic vision, where music plays a secondary or tertiary role, and where the actual message is lost somewhere between the barren wastelands of bad execution and a sad, lonely desolation of musical nonexistence? If anything, this Xasthur album succeeds at being genuinely misantrophic. It makes fun of all those fans that bought into this piece of retardation, and it mocks the entire concept of music we know it. Malefic's overt selfhatred is also exemplified by the fact that this album is essentially a parody of Xasthur, and boy does it make good fun of Malefic's music. ”Defective Epitaph” is genuinely worthless and a waste of space and time, hopefully to be forgotten. In my book, this effectively serves as an epitaph for Xasthur altogether.

A masterpiece of misanthropy - 80%

drengskap, April 18th, 2009

A lot of people get excited when there’s a new Xasthur album, but for me, just as with Vinterriket, it happens far too often – this is something like Xasthur’s 12th release in three years, including six split releases with Nachtmystium, Leviathan, Nortt et al. Having said that, Defective Epitaph does bring something new to Malefic of Xasthur’s one-man campaign against humanity.

The most obvious advance is that he’s now using real drums, which are given a sufficiently prominent place in the rough-as-a-splintery-plank mix for it to really make a difference, especially on the boomingly percussive ‘Oration of Ruin’. Keyboards are still an important element of Xasthur’s sound, but they’re rarely allowed to predominate over the surging waves of buzzsaw guitar, although the instrumental ‘Dehumanizing Procession’ overlays slow drums with distorted funereal organ.

The following track, ‘Funerals Drenched in Apathy’, is better, as doomy guitar riffing provides the backdrop to Malefic’s tormented howls, before the track moves into a mock-triumphal orchestral interlude. This is the archetypal sound of the black metal solo project as primal scream therapy, following the template established long ago by Burzum and Ildjarn, and sustained by the likes of Abyssic Hate, Instinct and L’Acéphale.

Defective Epitaph is a pitilessly challenging listen – 75 solid minutes of bleak, miserable, muddy, depressive, futile, introverted self-hatred and misanthropic contempt for humanity. Pure, unmitigated, agenda-less nihilism. The album gets especially difficult towards the end – the last three tracks are all slow, lengthy ambient pieces, with little change in pace, although ‘The Only Blood That Pours Is Yours’ achieves a sort of morose, lethargic grandeur.

Nothing on this album, though, will make you feel better about yourself or Malefic or anybody else, and you know better than I do whether that’s a place you want to go to. The inside of Malefic’s head may be an interesting place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there. No, trust me, you just wouldn’t.

Grab your syringes and SHOOT! - 88%

Diarrhea_Face, October 26th, 2007

It's unfortunate that most artists look at music in terms of what has been done, how to conjure emotion with tried formula's, many are unable to look past the aesthetics and thus stagnation. I have seen Xasthur criticized everywhere, as far as I am aware they have created their own sound, perhaps sub-genre. I'm truly glad that I came across this because even with their ritalin dosing fan base, they really exceptional.

Xasthur have created one piece of work here. It employs a severely tortured atmosphere, one which anyone with any degree of intelligence would be able to feel and in turn see. The songs are all relatively the same tempo, droning through with complete suffocating agony and chaos. I've heard many depressive and suicidal bands, what to me makes this different is the fact that it is full of hate, the intro to Oration of Ruin is a shining example of this. It pounds like gunshots from the nightmares in the mind of a failed suicide. The vocals are what really help bring this hate to the forefront, they are some of the worst I've heard, you can tell that some degree of pain must come from doing them. Even though there are some effects to alter the final result you can still tell that he has a tremendous amount of talent. He implements the sort of screams which use the throat more than the gut, meaning more force must be exerted. Imagine the sound one would make when swallowing razors, now reverse that and there you go.

There is an immense degree of compositional skill displayed on this album, primarily by the guitarist. I would go so far as to say that even though it is void of anything flashy (solo's) it still has the capability of capturing the listener in a multitude of directions. In the genre I'd say he has few competitors, either in the departments of concept or musicality. The very fact that he doesn't do anything flashy speaks for itself. You don't hear much of anything on this album that could be considered drab or uninspired, it has without a doubt taken considerable time and effort to shape this into form. As a whole it ranges in style from more keyboard laced ambient black metal, to funeral doom influenced droning, to all out riff dementia.

The only problem I have been able to find with this is the fact that given more time it could have been a masterpiece. It lacks that flowing continuity that all of the greats have. It just appears as a collection of decent to amazing songs. The situation isn't helped any by the fact that it appears to have been recorded at different times, or mixed by someone who didn't know what they were doing. Overall it's an excruciatingly surreal album full of all the negative/darker aspects of existence. It's miasmic breathe is one which won't leave my blood for some time to come.

Positively negative - 90%

dudelar, October 4th, 2007

Scott Connor is a true artist, there is not doubt about that. When I heard that he was going to be using acoustic drums and a cello on "Defective Epitaph" I absolutely couldn't wait to hear what it would sound like. Initially I was surprised to say the least.

Perhaps Scott (aka Malefic) realized that he had dug a bit of a hole for himself. When you release a lot of records in a short period of time, people develop lofty expectations and sometimes they may even want you to fail. That seemed like the case to me with "Subliminal Genocide." Malefic's presence was everywhere and the move to Hydrahead simply pissed a bunch of people off. The album didn't seem to blow a lot of people away. Personally, I thought it was his strongest yet. You can't please everyone though.

As I mentioned earlier, I was really excited about the prospects of this record. When I first heard it, I thought it maybe wasn't finished or it was an early mix (I got an advance promo through my job.) I'll admit it, I wasn't that into it at first. I was pleased about the use of acoustic drums but they seemed to be badly played at times and not recorded all that well. The guitars seemed to suffer because of the drums too which bummed me out. Compared to "Subliminal Genocide", this record seemed utterly chaotic to me.

As the days passed and I continued to listen to the album everyday, certain qualities began to show through. In the past, Malefic would open his albums with some sort of depressive ambience. Not this time, "Defective Epitaph" pummels you from the start. Not with programmed blast beats but with violent and primitive sounding drumming. There's also a certain patience to the album. "Subliminal Genocide" opens with easily the most memorable riffs on the album but on "Defective Epitaph" some of the best parts are hidden deep in the album as if he is daring the listener to make it that far. I think Malefic wants the listener to recognize the chaos and embrace it.

"Defective Epitaph" is a harsh and tragic album but there is beauty to be found in its misery. To me, this is a negative step in the wrong direction and that's exactly what a XASTHUR fan should want.

I don't really see a point in this - 55%

Noktorn, September 27th, 2007

I'm not a Xasthur fan. Not including this one right here, I've heard precisely zero Xasthur albums in their entirety. With that in mind, I can't compare this to anything else that Malefic's done at all, which puts me in a position minus any context but also minus any preconceived notions as well. So Xasthur's 2007 album 'Defective Epitaph' is effectively my intro to the project; now I just have to hear his twenty other releases to gain some context.

So, for my introduction to Xasthur, I have to say that I'm rather neutral to the whole thing in general. From what I know, the music here is really a continuation of Xasthur's core sound: ambient, 'suicidal' black metal composed of slow tempos, murky, perpetually shifting walls of keys and guitars, held together by shrieking vocals and fairly minimalist drumming. The last element there has been changed through the addition of an acoustic kit instead of a machine; it seems to be played perfectly capably, for what it's worth, as Malefic holds down some of the quite speedy double bass sections quite well. Everything seems to be performed capably enough, though this isn't an especially demanding style of music, but then again, it isn't supposed to be. This is obviously an album based entirely around atmosphere, and so it should be judged as such.

'Defective Epitaph' has atmosphere; a veritable assload of it, in fact. These slowly shifting walls of guitars and keyboards, with their slightly atonal yet ethereal and darkly mystical melodies are positively dripping with atmosphere, and the overall sound of Xasthur seems to perfectly channel that atmosphere. The feeling is stunningly dismal, bleak, and dreary; not really 'depressive' per se, but more soulless and trudging. It's suitably funereal and certainly evocative; hell, it's probably one of the most atmospheric albums I've ever heard, and every element seems perfectly in place to channel just such an atmosphere, from the murky production to the droning instrumentation to the thick walls of darkly psychedelic guitars and keys. It's very well composed.

Pros: Xasthur perfectly channels an incredibly dreary, dismal atmosphere that never lets up, and 'Defective Epitaph' is entirely composed of elements designed to elicit this very precise feeling.

Cons: Xasthur perfectly channels an incredibly dreary, dismal atmosphere that never lets up, and 'Defective Epitaph' is entirely composed of elements designed to elicit this very precise feeling.

Yes, the atmosphere is perfect, but it's not a very interesting atmosphere, at least not to me. It's like seeing a man build a house entirely out of waffles: it's cool to watch, and is pretty interesting just because of how obsessive, difficult, and strange a task it is, but in the end it's still a house made of waffles, and no amount of adornment is going to change it. Dreary and dismal are emotions, but they're sure as hell on the thin end of the emotional wavelength, coming up just a notch above 'indifferent' and 'apathetic' on the ladder of intensity. Dreary and dismal is cool; I don't mean to sound like I don't like it because it's not cheery or active enough for me. The problem is that there's seventy five minutes of dreary and dismal, and it's the exact same variety of dreary and dismal expressed in the exact same ways throughout. There is zero variation on 'Defective Epitaph'. You can get the idea of this album within the first thirty seconds, but then you get A HUNDRED AND FORTY NINE TIMES THAT AMOUNT throughout the CD. It's brilliant as an exercise in obsessive detail and precision, but that doesn't make it enjoyable or even very interesting to listen to after the first few tracks.

I'm not even really sure why this is called black metal; it really just seems to be ambient dressed up black metal clothing. There's no actual 'riffing', per se: just sequences of almost neoclassical, ambient guitar and keyboard notes that get packed with reverb and delay and stretched over enormous stretches of time, with variation established through shorter pieces intersecting with longer ones. I don't feel that some double bass, corpse paint, and dark atmosphere makes something black metal. It adheres to the most general aspects of the aesthetic, but it's missing all the really important parts of the style. There's no aggression to the music, no particularly intense emotion, no sense of going anywhere or doing anything. It just sits and dwells on its single subject throughout the entirety of the album, and it's just not an interesting enough subject to dwell on. If I look at this album as a sort of case study or research project on the nature of dreariness, it seems great, but as an album, I can't think of a real reason to listen to it.

But all this said, I can't say I really have much of a position on this album either way. I could just as easily say that it's a crushing masterwork of dark dreariness that the world has never seen before as I could say that it's stupid, boring crap that has no lasting value beyond detailing one man's obsession with all things dismal and distorted. Both would be fairly true. I guess that's the measure of things, though: while 'Defective Epitaph' does what it does incredibly well, what it's doing really doesn't cause any sort of reaction from me. I can't even say that I'm bored when the album's on: picking apart the numerous melodic layers is kind of interesting from at least a craftsman's perspective, even if I get no emotion or feeling from it at all. So while I respect this from the position of craftsmanship and the sort of skill and dedication it takes to pull off something like this, it just doesn't seem to be tremendously worthwhile to me either. It doesn't inspire me, it doesn't piss me off, it doesn't do anything but make me say, "I guess this is cool, kind of... I guess...". Maybe it's just not my thing, but in all honesty, I don't find anything to either recommend or detract in particular. Moreso than most music it comes down to taste and opinion, and I find myself planted very, very firmly in the middle of the road in that matter.

A Triumph for Xasthur - 88%

Earthad1000, September 26th, 2007

Xasthur is a hard band to review. Malefic is an extremely gifted artist, but he lacks some control at times. Many are quick to judge a band who has released 12 pieces in the past 3 years. I would have to say Malefic does put out a lot of shit, and a lot of similar sounding stuff, but he also puts our a lot of great stuff. Thankfully Defective Epitaph is something new. While it's an obvious Xasthur release, and sounds similar to other releases of his it is also very different in it's own right.


If you're new to Xasthur here's the band in a nutshell. Depressive, dense, ethereal black metal that contains usually a rough production and relies mostly on a wall of guitars and keyboards. This is atmospheric music, expect to feel it rather than listen.


The album starts off at full force, which was a nice surprise. There is no shitty intro, in fact there is not one crappy interlude on this album. The album flows extremely well, no mid album intros that Funeral of Being was plagued with. Along with the great structure i think this is the first time Malefic is playing the drums which is an extremely welcomed change.


Defective Epitaph has the best production of any Xasthur release. It is not clogged like Subliminal Genocide, and it is not thin and empty like The Funeral of Being. Each instrument is given the perfect amount of 'spotlight.' The guitar is not drowned out and lost as mere fuzz in the background, but rather it retains melody and density similar to that on To Violate The Oblivious, yet somehow a lot darker.
I feel a problem some Xasthur releases suffer is how the instruments clash with one another and the melodies become lost and congested. Defective Epitaph does a great job of melding each aspect of the 'band' perfectly. It's still dense and atmospheric as fuck, but it's distinguishable.


Each instrument is played and recorded perfectly. The guitars are not indistinguishable fuzz and the keyboards are not obnoxious and overbearing(like with Telepathic). Both the keyboard and the Guitars are responsible for the melodies; yet they never conflict. The keyboards are not cheesy and overdone like they were on previous releases, yet they are dark and sinister; deep and fitting. The guitar plays some great melodies, as well as builds up and maintains the atmosphere. The dominance of melody is traded off seamlessly from guitar to keys and vice versa. The vocals are perfect, Malefic's howls are unmatched. The distorted and 'wailing' quality they contain is chilling. Probably the best change Malefic has made are the drums on this album. I am almost positive the drums are real on this album, they sound great. While sloppy at times, the drums being real is such a big plus that i am willing to give this album an additional 10% just for real drums.


This album flows perfectly. Each song is extremely dense and moody and ties into the one next to it. Most of the album is mid paced, there are sections where Malefic whips out a blast beat and some nice foot work. Even the interludes (Unblessed Be, Dehumanizing Procession, and Purgatory Spiral) are great, in fact Dehumanizing Procession might be my favorite track. The only song i dislike and i feel like is worth skipping is Legacy Of Human Irrelevance, but even so it's not that bad, i just feel the drums are mixed too high on it.


Overall this might be one of Xasthur's best albums, it's a great place of newbies to begin and a very solid Xasthur release(which is a hard thing to come by). Xasthur is band that seems to put out too much for its own good, so don't be close minded when giving this album a try. This is a pick for '07 and a great album for any BM fan, or fan of atmospheric music.