As the three singles already quite explicitly suggested in the past few months, the new album entitled “Xenotaph,” released on June 13th, 2025, via Nuclear Blast, solidifies the Bay Area-based quintet, FALLUJAH, as one of the most exciting American tech-metal exports. Their previous album “Empyrean” (2022) introduced the band’s new lineup with a tad more progressively tinted approach to their signature songcraft, and the new outing further refines the band’s sound in this vein. The new songs are simultaneously more melodic, technical, and progressive, boasting even crazier riffs and ever more soaring solos, with all the technical death-metal extravaganza balanced out by haunting, atmospheric delights and more prominent clean-vocal hooks. The new album is a conceptual affair with each song representing a chapter in a psychedelic sci-fi saga inspired by Frank Herbert’s Dune novels. It musically unfolds like a cohesive, highly immersive, and exhilarating experience. If it felt as though the band had already reached a creative peak of sorts with “Empyrean,” it becomes clear after a few spins that FALLUJAH sure goes “one louder” with their new endeavor.
Released in April, “Labyrinth of Stone” was the first single off the album, gearing up on pure, high-octane tech-metal riffing. A couple of atmospheric, almost jazzy breaks balance out the serpentine chugging, with the latter coming off as the song’s absolute hook, what with the haunting, layered vocals (Kyle Schaefer is in his element on this new outing!) and nothing short of an inspired guitar solo. It’s a shame, really, that the section starting around the 4-minute mark and lasting about 45 seconds cannot be put on repeat. Then again, there are all sorts of delicious guitar licks in the song’s coda, too. Not a bad choice for the leading single!
The next two singles, “Step Through the Portal and Breathe” and “Kaleidoscopic Waves,” were released in mid-May, practically taking off from where the first single left off: ultra-tight riffs, haunting vocal layers, subtle fusion-jazz flourishes in the lead guitar department, and – most of all – banging songcraft. The coda in “Step Through the Portal and Breathe” is something I could listen to all day. Then, “Kaleidoscopic Waves” lives up to its title down to a tee; the song throws in kaleidoscopic guitar legatos, atmospheric plateaus, and beefy riffs. There are so many “I gotta hear this part again!” moments in the song that it is best just to put it on repeat right off the bat.
The album kicks off with a nicely titled banger, “In Stars We Drown.” The first half of the song is all about free-floating in zero gravity, with some beautiful, ethereal piano and soaring guitar lines providing the soundtrack. The latter half is more about the band’s signature chugging. The song captures the album’s sci-fi space theme rather nicely, even if you don’t pay that much attention to the lyrics. I was hyped up about the album before it even came out, thanks to those slapping singles.
Had I barely listened through the opener and I knew this whole endeavor would be a worthy sequel to the all-killer-no-filler “Empyrean,” no question about it. While the rest of the album does not offer much in the way of big surprises, it sure does deliver. “The Crystalline Veil,” for instance, showcases perhaps the most delicious basslines on the album, courtesy of Evan Brewer. The brief, clean-vocal section starting at 1.47 is particularly tasty in this respect, resonating with the air of classic NE OBLIVISCARIS! It’s a damn shame it is so short! The song is “merely” 6 minutes, so we could have had a few more rounds with this beautiful bassline? And speaking of song lengths, for a prog-inclined outfit, FALLUJAH opts for relatively short songs throughout the album. The shortest bangers, “In Stars We Drown” and “A Parasitic Dream,” are rather radio-friendly with their 3-minute playtime. That barely suffices for the length of an intro in the hardcore prog circles.
The longest track is saved for last. It is the title track, and it does the honors of bringing apt closure to this haunting space excursion with ample layers of epicness. It is both the portfolio piece for the band’s drummer, Kevin Alexander, and a textbook example of how to win big after presenting seven banging tracks of pure sonic bliss. If the opener was about free-floating in space, the closer is about thrusting through space with the propulsion engines glowing red, especially the song’s coda. Yeah, there is no doubt that this beautiful album will rank in the top 3 of my Best Metal Albums of 2025 list. It would take something out of this world to change that. Period.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Tracklist
- In Stars We Drown
- Kaleidoscopic Waves
- Labyrinth of Stone
- The Crystalline Veil
- Step Through the Portal and Breathe
- A Parasitic Dream
- The Obsidian Architect
- Xenotaph
Lineup
Kyle Schaefer – vocals
Kevin Alexander – drums
Sam Mooradian – guitars
Scott Carstairs – guitars
Evan Brewer – bass
Label
Nuclear Blast
