Thou shalt not

The Fury of Modern Metal The female fronted Modern Metal Band XENESTHIS shared stage already with METALLICA and SLAYER. Their second album “Thou shalt not” is out since the 14th of May 2011. A lot of bands try to create a distinct style – only a few succeed. XENESTHIS is one of these bands. No direct comparisons with other metal heroes will come to your mind. Between LACUNA COIL, SCAR SYMMETRY, DREAM THEATER, DEADLOCK and IN FLAMES XENESTHIS create their own, melodic universe. The band started in 2004 with their EPs „Immanis“ und „Straight to Infinity“ in the Dark Metal Genre before getting themselves into Metalcore with their first full length album "Sick of pitch-black" (noiseheadrecords). The band soon gained a good reputation for their sweat tearing live shows. Festival-gigs and support shows for SLAYER, SLIPKNOT, TRIVIUM, AMON AMARTH, MASTODON, LACUNA COIL, DISTURBED, AS I LAY DYING, SONIC SYNDICATE, DEATHSTARS, NEAERA, EKTOMORF, CALIBAN, AS WE FIGHT, DO OR DIE, CATARACT, SWORN ENEMY, J.B.O., DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER, PAIN followed. 2009 XENESTHIS opened for METALLICA the stage on the Novarock Festival in front of an enthusiastic crowd. But XENESTHIS felt soon limited in the narrow borders of the Metalcore genre and wanted to incorporate different influences for their next album, also focusing more on clean vocals - without losing the aggression and power. In that way XENESTHIS distinguish themselves clearly with Bernhardt‘s warm and dark midrange voice and the hard and detailed guitar riffs from other female-fronted Metal bands that sound a bit poppy. Nevertheless can XENESTHIS serve with great melodies and amazing choruses and some of them get stuck in your head after being heard just once. The cover of the album „Thou shalt not“ shows Alecto, one of the three Erinyes, the ancient Greek daemons of revenge. They punish crimes with insanity. The hopeful atmosphere prevailed on "sick of pitch-black". "Thou shalt not" shows us a darker, a more desperate look onto the world. Now somebody is singing about life itself, the chaotic circumstances, the shades of hedonism, the shades in ourselves, the fail of relationships, the fights that have to been fought, illnesses, insanity, loneliness, the daemons that eat one´s soul. Here someone is singing about pain, sometimes desperate, sometimes aggressive - sometimes soft and vulnerable. Only sometimes there´s a spark of hope. Hope, that music is overcoming all the pain: In the song „Raised Fist Armed“ there you can find the line: "It´s a phoenix rebuilt." XENESTHIS went through the fire, they have risen and burn brighter than ever before. Short spoken: Thou shalt not miss it!