In the year 2014, four musicians from different regions of North America came together in the Pacific Northwest to create XOTH, a band that captured their love of space, science fiction, Lovecraftian horror, and most importantly SHRED. Their first EP, "Hostile Terraforming", was self-released in July 2014 and was immediately followed by a short West Coast tour. After the success of that musical adventure, XOTH has booked and promoted two more tours on their own, every time gaining more loyal fans who recognize their passion and genuine way of connecting with crowds on and off stage. They present now their second full-length, titled "Interdimensional Invocations," which contains eight tracks.

"Casting the Sigil" opens the album, with a fury of guitars and drums. The vocals are somewhere in between Black and Death metal. The song is absolutely punishing and unrelenting, and full of pig squeals. Their musicianship is impeccable...they play very tight as a quartet. "Mountain Machines" is similar in sound and pacing, but has a little more structure as a song, and a bit of melody even. "Back to the Jungle" opens slowly and cautiously before the shredding and galloping drums start in. Some Progressive elements even rear their head here, in the form of the meter shifting. Some shouted vocals even come into play.

"Unseen Abductor" is a fast-moving track with running lead guitars and the drums and bass keeping pace. I really like the bass guitar in the mix here because you can hear it, and that is often not the case in a lot of music in general. "Haruspex" opens with a little guitar melody and the timekeeping skills of a master. They can turn and spin on dime while not losing sight of the song. The guitar solo is fantastic and whichever member composed it sounds classically trained. "Plague Revival 20XX" features some chaos but don't make the mistake of thinking that it isn't structured. Every move is planned out in advance. "The Ghost Hand of God" is the shortest song on the album, bubbling with energy mostly from drummer Jeremy Salvo. Like a lot of good Death Metal, you need to have a solid guy keeping the meter and man does Jeremy know what he is doing.

"Melted Face of the Soul" is the final track, at close to seven minutes in length. Opening with some controlled chaos, the sound shifts several times throughout. They are good at keeping you on your toes, but rely on the open E chord a little too much. The interesting thing about this song is the addition of melody. Like I said before, these guys know what they are doing. Overall, I think fans of Black, Death and Technical/Progressive Metal will find a lot to like here on the album. The musicians are obviously skilled, and even for the thin boundary lines of the sub-genre, they sure know how to push them. They play like the have been together for decades. Sometimes, when musicians click, they click.